One little piece of mischief precipitates a night of chaos and cross-purpose in Oliver Goldsmith's classic comedy SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. The famous eighteenth-century writer Samuel Johnson said of this play, "I know of no comedy that has answered so much the great end of comedy-making an audience merry." The play opens on July 8 for a three week run.
Deception and dramatic irony abound in this love tale, directed by Ruth Anne Baumgartner (Fairfield). Mr. Hardcastle, a country gentleman of substance and experience (Rob Pawlikowski, Roxbury), has hopes that his darling daughter Kate (Liesbet Higham, New Haven) will marry young Charles Marlow (Ward Whipple ,Bridgeport), and has arranged for young Marlow to come for a visit. Everything in his description interests Kate until she hears that he is extremely "bashful and reserved," but she decides that he might be worth it anyway. Meanwhile, her cousin, Constance Neville (Megan Poitras, Southbury), has arranged to elope with Marlow's close friend (
David Hartigan, White Plains, NY), and the plan is that he will come along on the visit. But Mr. Hardcastle's wife (Linda Gilmore, Norwalk) is intent on Constance's marrying her son by her first marriage, Tony Lumpkin (Nik Shpilberg, Westport), in part so that he can inherit the Neville jewels. The two have been pretending affection to please his doting mother. On the night of the play, Tony runs into Marlow and Hastings at a tavern where they have stopped to ask directions to the Hardcastle manor and, for a bit of fun, he convinces them to stay the night at the excellent Buck's Head Inn nearby (actually Hardcastle's home). Although Marlow is tongue-tied around women of his own social class he is charming and articulate with barmaids, servants, and other lower-class women. When he mistakes Kate for a barmaid he not only enchants her but also falls in love with her. Tony's resourceful manipulations of reality to further the elopement, Hardcastle's indignation at being treated like an innkeeper instead of a gentleman, Marlow's serial embarrassment as the various levels of his erroneous assumptions are revealed, the various hysterics of Mrs. Hardcastle, the lovers' joy, and the zany coach ride in the dark are all treated with good will by the playwright and add up to an evening of laughter and pleasure.
The cast is rounded out by Miles Aldrich (Newtown), John Pyron (Fairfield), Nick Kaye (Bethel),
Michael Cassidy (Middlebury), Tristan Speed (Bethel) (who also performs period music on guitar in several musical interludes), Linda Panovich-Sachs (Bridgeport) and Marguerite Foster (Torrington).
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER runs July 8,9,10, 15,16,17, 22,23,24. Curtain time is 8:00 p.m. Fridays & Saturdays, 2:00 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets for all shows are $20; $10 children 10 and under, payable by cash or check at the door only.
Reservations can be made by calling the box office at 203-270-9144. For further information about Town Players, visit
www.newtownplayers.org.
Town Players' Little Theatre is a community theater, currently in its 76th season, located on 18 Orchard Hill Road, just off Route 25 (a mile north of the Sand Hill Plaza) in Newtown, Conn.
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