Jeanie Deans

“Jeanie Deans” opened at Laura Keene’s Theatre in New York City on 9 January 1860. The play was an adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s The Heart of Midlothian, and starred Boucicault’s wife Agnes Robertson in the title role. Boucicault himself portrayed the Counsel for the Defense of Jeanie Deans’ sister Effie in the pivotal court scene, and was highly praised for his performance. The play was a huge success, drawing capacity houses for fifty-four nights. In January 1863, Boucicault moved the play to London, where he changed the name to “The Trial of Effie Deans.” However, despite the excellent cast and mainly positive reviews, the play failed to achieve the long run Boucicault had anticipated; this was mainly due to the Theatre Royal’s location, which was not actually in Westminster but rather on the south side of the Thames, where a reputation for violence and ruffianism kept theatre-goers away. By the Fall of 1863, Boucicault declared bankruptcy.

Boucicault revived the play again in January 1868, this time at the Princess’s Theatre in London, where it once again received welcome notices in the press, but did not enjoy a long or successful run. The proof copy of the script for “Jeanie Deans” as it was presented at the Princess’s in 1868 is digitized here, and the Dion Boucicault Theatre Collection also contains two earlier handwritten drafts of the script bearing a watermark of 1862, likely pointing to pre-production notes for the Theatre Royal performance in London. Boucicault’s emendations are found throughout both scripts, offering much to researchers of theatre criticism and history.