Articles
Goldsmith’s famous play "She Stoops to Conquer", was first performed in 1773 and has remained one if the best loved comedies in the repertoire ever since, both in the UK and abroad. The delightfully convoluted plot – two young men about town mistaking a country manor house for a pub and the eligible daughter for a barmaid, has a farcical modern edge. When performed as a period piece, (and this is one play that really does not lend itself to “post modern” updating) the play is also a fascinating window into the class structure of eighteenth century society. “She Stoops to Conquer” has not been seen on television since 1971, and it is fair to say that the studio bound, multi camera style that was the norm for the day would probably not be acceptable to a contemporary audience accustomed to a much more filmic approach.
"She Stoops to Conquer" was shot entirely on location in and around Wiveton Hall, a Jacobean Manor House in North Norfolk, on single camera and in high definition. We have used a visual language that a modern audience relates to; lifting the play out of the theatre in the same way that Capriol’s “Boheme” and “Falstaff” have lifted opera out of the opera house. We have not altered or annotated Goldsmith’s text, but enlivened it with cutaways, exteriors, close ups and all the tools in the contemporary film maker’s box.
"She Stoops to Conquer" is performed by a superb cast. The older characters are played by established film and theatre actors Polly Hemingway, Ian Redford and guest star Roy Marsden. The younger parts are taken by exciting talents such as Mark Dexter, who impressed so much as the lead in Capriol Film’s “Peter Warlock – Some Little Joy” and Susannah Fielding, currently playing Hero opposite Zoë Wanamaker and Simon Russell Beale at the Royal National Theatre.
Goldsmith’s play deservedly lives on in the theatre, it now has a new life on television, available for anyone to enjoy, whether they be lovers of the original, seeking a new view of it, or newcomers to the wit and of eighteenth century comedy.
Tony Britten, Producer/Adapter/Director.
Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops To Conquer” and the making of the documentary “A Gooseberry Fool: Oliver Goldsmith Stoops To Conquer” shown on Sky Arts channel 267.