Our American Cousin/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Trivia about Our American Cousin includes:

  • Edward Askew Sothern was reluctant to take the role of Lord Dundreary in the original cast, because he felt that the part was too small. When he mentioned this to Joseph Jefferson (who had already been cast in the titular role), Jefferson is said[1] to have replied with, "There are no small parts, only small actors." This was three decades before Konstantin Stanislavski popularized the phrase while directing at the Moscow Art Theatre.
  • Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while watching a performance of this play on Good Friday, April 14, 1865.

  1. By Bernard Havard in his book Walnut Street Theatre