This is the true story of the play everyone has heard of but nobody has seen. Once the toast of two continents, the British comedy Our American Cousin played to packed houses for years from 1858 to 1865 until that bloody night of April 14, 1865, when John Wilkes Booth made his impromptu appearance on stage during the third act. Then matinee idol and national celebrity Booth brought down the house by firing two shots from a lady's derringer into the back of the head of President Abraham Lincoln.