Boucicault, Dion

Dion Boucicault was arguably the most popular and influential of Victorian dramatists. From a start writing comedies he became a master of melodramatic form and stage effect, writing and often acting in such works as The Corsican Brothers , The Octoroon , and Jessie Brown; or, The Relief of Lucknow . His plays increasingly dealt with such contemporary concerns as slavery and the wars of empire; he found perhaps his greatest success in a series of Irish plays beginning with the Colleen Bawn , works that proved hugely popular not only in England but also in Ireland and the United States.