London Assurance, the classic British farce, taped live from London's National Theatre. Admission: $22 general; $18 Cinema members; $15 students.

Dion Boucicault, the Irish genius of London theatre in the age of Dickens, wrote the brilliantly funny London Assurance in 1841 and created — in Sir Harcourt and Lady Spanker — two of the greatest comic roles of the English stage, played now at the National Theatre by Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw.

Sir Harcourt Courtly is lured away from the epicentre of fashionable London by the promise of a rich and beautiful bride, Grace, several decades his junior. Arriving at Oak Hall, Gloucestershire, he marvels at this rural Venus until her charms are eclipsed by her hearty cousin, the foxhunting Lady Gay Spanker. Meanwhile Sir Harcourt's disguised son turns up in flight from his creditors and falls head over heels for Grace. When Lady Spanker discovers the young couple, she needs little prompting to lead Sir Harcourt astray.

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