Goldsmith’s comedy of manners is brought to sparkling life in Jonathan Munby’s production. Written in the latter part of the eighteenth century, She Stoops to Conquer sees a wealthy country squire’s daughter embroiled in a saga of mistaken identity and affairs of the heart. When Charles Marlow visits Squire Hardcastle’s country house in order to meet a prospective bride, he is told that it is in fact an inn by the squire’s mischievous son.

The Squire’s daughter Kate, let in on the joke, "stoops to conquer" by donning the attire of a barmaid in order to fathom his true character. Meanwhile in a comic sub-plot the intended elopement by Kate’s cousin Constance and Charles’s friend Hastings is continually set back by the plotting of her guardian, Mrs Hardcastle. A delightful romp ensues, ensuring that, via overheard conversations and outright trickery, the lovers win the day and the righteous are rewarded.

In true eighteenth century style, the prologue and epilogue are updated—as they would have been in contemporary productions—to suit the mood of the time. Here the premise set is that of an usherette, Kate, who, spurned by her fellow usher Charlie, sets off into the play in order to get her man accompanied by rhyming couplets. While slightly on the sickly-sweet side, this does add a charming feel to the play, which begins with live folk music that continues throughout. Also keeping to contemporary form is the magnificently painted set, easily adapted with flying two dimensional trees and with exactly the right number of doors for a play that is largely farce.

The somewhat stereotyped characters are carried easily by the confident cast, right down to the caricatured servants. Despite this praise, however, the performance as a whole has an emptiness. Perhaps it is the sentimentality of the play itself that does not ring true, although Goldsmith is trying to achieve a return to the more bawdy comedy of the early part of the century. The occasional song interlude jars in a way that disrupts the merriment of the plot, the momentum of which is vital to retain the attention of the audience. Altogether, this is a straightforward and well-executed gentle comedy, with fine costumes in a pleasant setting.