She Stoops to Conquer...

[fajrdrako]

Last night I went to see She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, put on by the Third Wall Theatre Company in the old Great Canadian Theatre Company theatre - 'old', I say, because they are just on the cusp of moving to a spiffy new building at Holland and Wellington, with Third Wall Theatre in tow. Congratulations to all, they've worked hard for a nice new place, and more power to them.

I went with auriaephiala, commodorified and raynedaze, and I must say, they're good people to see plays with. Afterwards we went to an Italian restaurant on Preston St. in search of gelato; it was amazing how few places were open after the play. For some reason I thought Preston St. was the kind of street where everyone ate, drank and made merry late into the night... Not, I guess, if it's Wednesday. We failed to find any gelato, but found something even better: a wonderful place that had crème brulée on the menu, and commodorified ordered port, which she kindly shared with me and that - along with some utterly delicious cafe latte - was a sort of perfect ending to the evening.

I've always been curious about She Stoops to Conquer, because for all its fame I not only had never seen it, I didn't even know what the story was about - though I had some notion it was a romantic face, in the style of Restoration Comedy. No wonder I'd never been told the plot: it's all dreadfully complicated. It's one of those stories based on multiple misunderstandings: Mr Marlow has been tricked into thinking he's at an inn and that the girl he likes is a barmaid, while in fact he's at the home of his father's old friend Mr Hardcastle and the girl, Kate, is the well-bred lady they hope he'll marry, despite his phobia about well-bred ladies. Meanwhile his friend Mr Hastings is trying to elope with Kate's cousin Constance (and her jewels) while Mrs Hardcastle is conniving for Constance to marry her son Tony. Silliness ensues. There are some nice digs at class-consciousness and wealth that reminded me of Molière. It's a nice, witty, smoothly fluid script that doesn't bother to much too make sense. Words like "rollicking" come to mind.

This production embroidered the tale a little by making it a fictional amateur production in which several roles were being performed by substitute actors, including a gender switch between Kate and Mr Hastings. I found the switch more distracting than interesting. The most interesting part of this elaboration was the fake bios of the cast in the lobby, which were most entertaining reading.

When we went in to the theatre, there was a sign near the entrance warning about "naughty bits". Disappointingly, there were really no naughty bits, which, considering it was am 18th century play, must have been an oversight.


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¹ If you want to see a picture of this sign, commodorified got a photo of herself and the sign together.

Comments

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Yup, I liked the fake bios in the lobby. OTOH, it would have been better not to confuse things in the program as well. At some point one of those actors might actually want to prove they played the part.

Maybe they switched the parts because one or both of the actors wanted to play a "breeches" or "petticoat" part and might not ever get another opportunity? Dunno. It reminds me of a scene in The Cricket Term by Antonia Forest where Lawrie Marlow is obsessed with playing Caliban in The Tempest, even though everyone thinks it's totally unsuitable for her and wants her as Ariel. (Lawrie being slight, young, and blond, this is not surprising, but I think she would have easily overcome those obstacles with a bit of makeup and a lot of acting.)

I was at Cafe Paradiso a few weeks ago where they served ginger and lemongrass crème brulée. It was, in fact, incredibly good. So was the house bread pudding. It might be worth going there just for the desserts (on a non-jazz night).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

At some point one of those actors might actually want to prove they played the part.

That's true! I wonder how many people actually read the bios in the lobby.

Obviously someone thought switching Kate and Marlow was a good idea - and the actors seemed to enjoy it, though I'm not sure there wasn't a touch of self-indulgence there. I suspect Kate would have been a little less coy if she's been played by a woman, but who knows?

It reminds me of a scene in The Cricket Term by Antonia Forest where Lawrie Marlow is obsessed with playing Caliban in The Tempest, even though everyone thinks it's totally unsuitable for her and wants her as Ariel.

Isn't that usually up to the director, or the casting director? I guess it's more informal than usual with a company like Third Wall, but usually a director offers and actor a part and they get to take it or leave it - not to choose another at will. Which is why actors sometimes become producers.

Cafe Paradiso - okay, I've go to go there!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

IUP's Theatre-by-the-Grove put on She Stoops to Conquer when I was an undergraduate; it was one of the few that I was not directly involved with (I usually did either props or electrics). I remember it as a herculean effort of the faculty director, Barb Blackledge, who is now the department chair, to keep it moving despite all the long speeches with circuitous period grammatical constructions. She did well, I thought. Her finest moment, she later said, was the blocking for the final scene, in which all the plot elements came together and/or were revealed, and all the cast were onstage at one time. Go, Barb!

One of my favorite lines from our production: "My wife, as I am a Christian!!!"

Glad you enjoyed yours!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There really are some cute lines in this play! I think this version was somewhat cut - it wasn't too wordy, anyway.