Crescent Theatre: She Stoops To Conquer

"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.”

Oliver Goldsmith's glorious comedy of misunderstanding is one of the greatest plays of the English stage. An ambitious stepmother, impassioned sweethearts, a pragmatic father and a pair of star-crossed lovers are sent spinning through a hilarious comedy of errors by practical joker Tony Lumpkin.

Charles Marlow has been invited to visit the Hardcastles’ country home in order to consider engagement to Mr Hardcastle’s daughter Kate. On the way, however, Marlow and his companion Hastings are waylaid by Kate’s step-brother Tony, a practical joker who convinces them that the Hardcastle house is, in fact, a country inn where they will need to spend the night before continuing on their journey.

Confusion reigns as Marlow takes Mr Hardcastle for a presumptuous innkeeper and Kate for the local barmaid, an error she happily plays along with to trick him into discarding his shy and formal public demeanour and revealing the rogue beneath. Kate’s cousin Constance, meanwhile, plots to elope with Hastings but first needs to steal her jewels out from under the nose of her controlling aunt, Mrs Hardcastle.

Will the mistakes of the night be uncovered before it’s too late?