Our American Cousin

Our American Cousin is a three-act play by English playwright Tom Taylor. The play is a farce whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish, but honest American, Asa Trenchard, to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family estate. The play first premiered at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City on October 15, 1858, and the title character was first played by Joseph Jefferson. Although the play achieved great renown during its first few years and remained very popular throughout the second half of the 19th century, it is best remembered as the play U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was attending in Ford's Theatre when he was assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865.