OLIVER Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy She Stoops to Conquer is said to have been based on an incident in his childhood, in which he was jestingly directed to a local manor house which he was told was an inn. Whatever the truth of the attribution, it resulted in a classic play that has stood the test of time, continuing to delight audiences around the English speaking world.

Perhaps it’s even more appealing to us country folk, for whom the squire’s house is something we can all picture, and the idea of city swells bestowing their gracious favours on we local rustics is a scenario we recognise, even today.

John Crabtree’s production, for the redoubtable Amateur Players of Sherborne, is a joy from beginning to end. The intimate theatre, with its tiny stage, has been brilliantly transformed by moving walls, authentically painted, “period” furniture and sensitive lighting, to bring the great hall of Hardcastle Hall to vivid life. It also encapsulates the sounds and shadows of a thicket in the dark night.

All the while the cast of 12 unfurl this story of marital promises, filial responsibility, social climbing, self delusion and lusty liaisons, with huge gusto and skill. In brief, Mr and Mrs Hardcastle’s affectionate relationship is threatened by their plans for their children. Mrs Hardcastle has convinced herself that her well-meaning but dumb son Tony Lumpkin is a genius-in-waiting. She wants him to marry his cousin Constance Neville to keep her fortune in the family. Mr Hardcastle wants his daughter Kate to marry his friend Sir Charles Marlow’s son Charles. Charles arrives with his friend George Hastings, who is secretly engaged to Constance. Charles is famed for his bawdy relationships with serving girls, but helplessly tongue tied with his female peers. Tony directs George and Charles to Hardcastle Hall, telling them it is an inn. Kate views her intended husband with suspicion, but likes him, and decides to trick him into action by pretending to be a maid. It works – and it needed no sequel or prequel.

APS are particularly lucky to have a deep well of talent from which to cast these hilarious characters, and in this production there are some outstanding performances, notably from Catarina da Silva as a Kate who breaks the fourth wall with astonishing assurance as she weaves poor Marlow further into his folly, from Cameron Thrower as the best Lumpkin I have ever seen, and Bev Taylor-Wade at the peak of her powers as a marvellously comic Mrs Hardcastle. They lead the exceptional cast which also includes Richard Culham, Sam Frost, Peter Sangston and Christine Bingley, with Roger Chadbourne, Gilly Savage, John Crabtree and Olivia Kippax, all contributing memorable characters.

Special mention too for Adrian Harding, who not only plays three roles here – as lusty yokels Dick Muggins and Diggory, and Sir Charles Marlow – but also had a leading role at Yeovil’s Swan in Terra Nova, only a fortnight before.

See this terrific show if you can fit it in before you are called on to start the annual shout of “it’s behind you.”

GP-W

And as a footnote from me, thanks so much to KF, who started December in the Christmas spirit and bought me (a total stranger), a delicious ice-cream in the interval.