As every American learns by Junior High school, Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed at the Ford Theater in Washington while watching a performance of Our American Cousin, a comedy.
What I don’t know is whether or not Our American Cousin is actually funny, or even if it’s been performed since that fateful night in 1865.
Anyone know the scoop?
Oxford University Press published an edition of Our American Cousin in 1996, in a volume that includes other 19th-century stage hits The Corsican Brothers and Trilby. Beacham Publishing came out with an edition in 1990.
I performed in the play, in High School. It was a slightly modified version, opening with a ‘Night Watchman’ who was ‘guiding’ the audience on a tour of the Ford Theatre. At the moment in the play when Lincoln was shot, a shot rang out, the actors froze in place, and the night watchman explained the circumstances of Lincolns death.
It’s actually not a bad play – it’s a comedy, and we didn’t have to change anything for people to get the humor. Of course, the whole gunshot and history lesson was kind of a downer.
I played the Night Watchman, and provided my own pistol. It was a real pistol – a 9-shot .22 caliber revolver. The school provided the blanks. Can’t imagine that being allowed anymore.
Or you can read Our American Cousin on-line at Project Gutenberg.
Lincoln was shot at the point in Act III when the character Asa says, “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap.”
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
“Sockdologizing” is an interesting word. No origin listed, M-W says it is only circa 1830, used for a punchline in late 1800’s, and completely dead now.
An earlier thread on the word:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=64566
IIRC, they’ve even performed it at Ford’s Theater in Washington. No casualties in that run.
Glad to see it got a fair shake. 
Did the President happen to attend a performance of the revival?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by BrainGlutton *
**Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? **[/QUOTE
I was wondering that myself:D
Regarding FORD’s Theatre…I heard some time ago that it was haunted! I also believe that the theatre was due to be torn down in the 1920’s (it was abandoned for years); but then the Nat. Park Servicebought it and restored it. Anyway, has anyopne seen anything strange at this place? If old Abe were to haunt any place, it surely would be this place!
Every once in a blue moon, I’ll see a article about a performance of “Our American Cousin.” However, I suspect that it would almost NEVER be performed if it didn’t have that Lincoln connection.
Think about it- how often do you see ANY comic play from the mid 19th century performed? Hardly ever, I’d wager. In a perverse way, an otherwise forgettable (though mildly amusing) play was immortalized by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
I’ve seen a performance of one of my favorite plays, “She Stoops To Conquer” at Ford’s Theater. I didn’t notice anything strange going on. But I have a friend who is a Lincoln assassination buff who was totally spooked when he visited Ford’s – probably the work of an overactive imagination. He told me a story about it – I think it involved hearing the curtains on the box rustling, or feeling like someone was watching him.
Here’s the National Park Service’s Ford’s Theater website. Now playing: 1776, A Musical.
Actually, I would think Lincoln would be haunting the house across the street, if anywhere, just because that’s where he died.
I’ve performed in a couple of 19th-century plays, including the bicentennial revival of Dion Boucicault’s Forbidden Fruit (1876). I think there’s a theater in Colorado that performs old melodramas. Maybe I should hightail it out there and become a character actress–I’d be a great Aunt Ophelia in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
“Now, Topsy, do you know where you came from?”
Hey, even dead people like to take in a show sometimes.
Does the fragment shown in the recent remake of Bedazzled count?
Even some plays of more recent vintage are hardly ever performed, for example, “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here, Anymore” by Tennessee Williams. Despite the fact that it was made into an all-star motion picture with an all-star cast–and being one of the classic movies of the past four decades, it is just not to be seen.