She Stoops to Conquer at Guildford Castle Bandstand
Venue: Castle Grounds, Castle Street, Guildford, GU1 3SX. Directions.
OUR VERDICT:
Matt Pereira
Has the pandemic left you craving froth, fluff and life-affirming silliness? If so, then take my advice: stop doom-scrolling, switch off the news, and book yourself a ticket to your nearest production of She Stoops to Conquer.
Goldsmith’s beloved play is a riot of mistaken identities and marital mishaps, the sort of exquisitely silly comedy where everything and nothing goes wrong, nobody catches an infectious disease, and everyone gets married at the end.
This production from the Guildford Shakespeare Company makes the most of the mayhem, delivering a joyful evening that’ll drive all thoughts of R numbers and vaccines from your head (right up until the end, that is, when social distancing prevents our newly united lovers from sharing the customary kiss.)
A quick summary for the uninitiated
Bashful suitor Charles Marlow has suffered all his life with the inability to speak to (or even look at) a modest woman.
Dispatched by his father to woo the daughter of a family friend, he’s certain that his excessive diffidence will scupper any chance of success. But he’s reckoned without the series of comic mishaps that will lead him to mistake an ancestral hall for a common country inn, and his gentle-born beau for a rambunctious barmaid…
In the Guildford Shakespeare Company’s al fresco production, the action has been moved from the late 18th Century to a Wodehousian 1930s, complete with flapper dresses, gramophones and cocktails a-plenty. It’s a smart move - not least because it allows the (surprisingly nimble) cast to indulge in a delightful end of show Charleston.
The simple set and pared-back staging allowed the gorgeous costumes to shine - although the unseasonal weather played havoc with feathered headdresses and fringed gowns.
The whole thing is a lot of fun, only enhanced by the uniformly excellent cast.
Robert Maskell is endearing as eccentric but good-hearted Mr Hardcastle, while Sarah Gobran is great fun as his flighty fashionista of a wife.
Matt Pereira
Corey Montague-Sholay infuses Tony Lumpkin with a puck-like sense of humour, Natasha Rickman is a spirited, playful Kate, and Matt Pinches gets plenty of laughs as bumbling servant Diggory. Special mention must go to the comic duo of James Sheldon and Tom Richardson as Marlow and Hastings, the two pompous Londoners who burst into Hardwick Hall to woo the women and insult the master. As our leading man, Sheldon gets the blend of bashfulness and pomposity just right.
That’s not to say that everything went off without a hitch.
Like our bumbling heroes, this production of She Stoops to Conquer was beset by complications: the weather, far from balmy, was cold and wet, and for the first Act, Rachel Summers, who plays Constance, was indisposed due to unforeseen circumstances.
Nonetheless, the show did go on: the audience swathed themselves in blankets and waterproofs, and Bea Svistunenko gamely stepped into the role of Constance. By the end of the evening, it was clear that no amount of rain could dampen the charm of this irresistible production.
You heard it here first: with lashings of comic confusion and a reassuringly happy ending, She Stoops to Conquer is the perfect antidote to those pandemic blues.
