She Stoops to Conquer

by Oliver Goldsmith

at The Playhouse 'til Saturday

The course of true love never did run smooth, but it had even worse odds of doing so in a eighteenth century romantic comedy.

Charles Marlow and his similarly knickerbockered best buddy, Hastings, get themselves well and truly lost on their way to the Hardcastle home, where Marlow is mentally steeling himself to woo young Kate Hardcastle. Unfortunately, with much coincidental rum luck, they happen to ask directions at the very pub where the errant Tony Lumpkin, jocular, brash and all-round winning member of Hardcastle House, decides for a lark to send the two for a night's lodgings at 'The Old Bucks Head Inn', which of course is not really an inn at all, but the Hardcastle family home. Some lovely comedy is derived from ye olde ploy of mistaken identities, with Marlow first thinking the pompous Mr Hardcastle (a wonderful Peter Roberts) to be the inn's landlord, and later, thinking his daughter Kate to be the barmaid. And hence the corker title....

Hearing that her stuttering and painfully awkward suitor is actually a witty man-of-the-world when not in the company of ladies, Kate makes use of Marlow's confusion, and disguises herself as comely serving-girl extraordinaire to try to detect the Georgian Superman in her woefully inadequate Clark Kent. Unfortunately, John Newton gives us an interpretation of Marlow's alter ego that's decidedly seedy rather than suave, making it tricky to see him as Kate's romantic equal. Slightly more well-matched are Marlow's chum Hastings and his secret love, Miss Neville, who waste no time plotting an elopement once discovering themselves in each other's company. But the meddling Mrs Hardcastle (a great turn by Jenny Austen), the small matter of a large fortune and a letter which falls into the wrong hands all conspire, naturally, against them.

She Stoops to Conquer is a frivolous but endearing piece, and this production, in the words of director Peter Mottley, goes in for simplicity. The first half was dragging a little on opening night, but had found it's feet by the second and was beginning to sparkle. With the added bonus of not just one happy ending but several, it's a nice temporary bit of escapism to a world where nothing ever goes too seriously wrong.

Monica Pausina