But give him a hearty wench, and he’s silver tongued and self assured. But their first meeting went very poorly, since Marlow is paralyzed with anxiety whenever he talks to someone of his own social class. It seems one of the London gentlemen – Young Marlow (a dashing Jamal James) – and Kate have been promised to each other by their fathers. (Watch out for flying furniture.) Fortunately he recovers his faculties in time to spy on his daughter Kate, an effortlessly elegant Laura Rook, as she gets to know a nervous suitor by masquerading as a barmaid. The scene where Hardcastle 'cracks' is pure genius. Tension builds over the course of the play to a hilarious tipping point. (Who in the house might have given these travelers the wrong impression?) Hardcastle, James Ridge also puts on impressive displays of sputtering, seething and exasperation, after his esteemed guests - two young men from London - insist on treating him not like their host, but as a common innkeeper. (Exquisite costume design by Rachel Laritz.) Her physical comedy skills are also on display in the last act, as Day delivers many of her lines while in a skirmish with a large tree, on a hill off stage left.Īs her husband Mr. Day also boldly exhibits Hardcastle’s foolishness, including wearing a gown and headpiece the character imagines to be the latest style from London.īut with a multitude of red velvet bows decorating yards of green striped fabric, she resembles a Christmas tree more than a fashion plate. Hardcastle in this plum role, from spoiling her son Tony rotten, to arranging a profitable marriage for him, to scheming to withhold a fortune in jewels from her niece Constance (a practical and determined Phoebe Gonzalez). Relegated to roles as elderly maids and dowager aunts in recent seasons, she fully embraces everything ridiculous about Mrs. Krause, now in his third season at APT, truly shines in this irreverent role – a bad boy rockstar in his imagination and a fairly harmless prankster in real life who isn’t bothered by his lack of ambition or direction, merely his lack of freedom.Īs his doting mother, Sarah Day is back center stage. On his way home from another raucous night at the Three Pigeons Pub, Lumpkin has been pursuing his own entertainment: drinking, subverting the will of his controlling mother (a fantastic Sarah Day), fronting a band that appears each time he sets out on an adventure and playing practical jokes on unsuspecting gentlemen.

The first character we meet, the drunken youth Tony Lumpkin (a pitch-perfect Josh Krause), comes barreling down the stairs from the back of the house even before the pre-show announcements have finished advising everyone to keep the aisles clear for just such an occasion. The comedy in the production is heightened significantly by excellent, energetic performances by the ensemble cast and staging by Gordon that never misses an opportunity to augment these conflicts between opposites.

The humor in this play as it's written – and it is very funny – comes from juxtaposing opposites: a forward young woman and a tongue-tied man city folks and country folks an arranged match that turns out well and one that’s disastrous the older generation battling for control with the younger the differences in dress, speech and mannerisms between the upper and lower classes long trips that go nowhere and directions that intentionally mislead. 'She Stoops to Conquer' runs in rotating rep on The Hill outdoor stage in Spring Green through Sept. Oliver Goldsmith’s 18th century comedy of mistaken identity, practical jokes and unlikely pairs receives a boisterous, playful production outdoors at American Players Theatre, directed with a delightful eye for the absurd by Laura Gordon.

She stoops to conquer