Tom Taylor
Plays
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Introduction
Our American Cousin is an 1858 play in three acts 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. It premiered at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City on October 15, 1858, and the main character was first played by Joseph Jefferson. Although the play achieved great renown during its first few years, it became best known 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.