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PublicPerspective is the PittsburghPublicTheater's newslettertorsubscribers andfriends.
March-April 1986
Th e Critics And She Stoops To Conquer
/n Pra ise Of Comedy
Although the players are in costume and the language has the rhythmic formality of the eighteenth century, the heart of the play is vibrantly modern. Goldsmith's ... capacity for inventing sprightly situations and investing them with humor can still dominate a stage. His gift was to see people truly and to laugh at some and with others. -Howard Taubman, New York Times, 1960
... the startling thing is the discovery that the production's humour is as fresh and sparkling as if Goldsmith were a contemporary of Neil Simon. It is impossible to think of Goldsmith except in the present tense after seeing this immortal play which may well continue to be a hit right into the 21st century. -Montreal Gazette, 1972
For some years tragedy was the reigning entertainment; but of late it has given way to comedy ...The pompous train, the swelling phrase and the unnatural rant are displaced for that natural portrait o human folly and frailty of which all are judges because all have sat for the picture. - Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith from the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Viewers and reviewers for more than two centuries have applauded Oliver Goldsmith's comedy, She Stoops To Conquer. They have been amazed: "The scenes are so many beauties . . . Each one belongs, it contributes." (Frank Aston, New York World-Telegram, 1960) And they have been amused: "She Stoops stands high and joyfully among the best comedies in the language." (Kenneth Huron, What's on in London, 1928) After attending the 1984 Roundabout Theater production starring E.G. Marshall and Kaye Ballard as Squire and Mrs. Hardcastle, Mel Gussow wrote, "Goldsmith set out to satirize the senti mental comedy of his era, and managed to have it both ways. He chided the debilitating gentility of the gentry at the same time that he cheered an audience with good-natured romantic hijinks." This was Goldsmith's aim: as he laments in his 1772 "Essay on the Theatre," comic plays just weren't funny anymore. "Which deserves the preference," he demanded, "the weeping sentimental comedy so much in fashion at present, or the laughing, and even low comedy, which seems to have been last exhibited by Vanbrugh and Gibber?" He labored for three months in seclusion on She Stoops and rushed with it to George Colman, the manager at th_e Covent Garden Theater in London. Goldsmith was told he would have to wait: Colman was not sure the play was at all funny and the actors were
no more enthused than he. Fortunately for our author, Samuel Johnson liked the piece and pressured Colman to present it. On March 20, 1773 Johnson could cheer, "I know of no comedy for many years that has so much exhilarated an audience." Psychological astuteness and a firm reliance on an intrinsically amusing plot are key to the play's success. She Stoops has been more often performed than almost any other play in the English language, Shakespeare aside, and has been graced by many fine casts. In 1924 Helen Hayes played Constance opposite Paul McAllister's Hastings at the Empire Theater. Celeste Holm as Kate, Burl Ives as the Squire, Brian Aherne as Tony Lumpkin and Evelyn Varden as Mrs. Hardcastle performed to acclaim in 1949. Another sterling She Stoops was done in 1969 at Washington, D.C.'s National Repertory Theater with Geoff Garland (who appeared earlier this season in the Public's production of Life with Father) as Lumpkin and Sylvia Sidney (Pittsburgh Public Theater Season 10, 'night, Mother) as the greedy but doting Mrs. Hardcastle. Goldsmith feared that having "banished humor from the stage, we should ourselves be deprived of the art of laughing." His response to this fear has become one of the eighteenth-century's best-known plays. "Nothing," praised Virginia Woolf, '.'could be more amusing than She Stoops to Conquer." Wendy Nardi
Shy Genius
Subscr.ibers: ·watch ·, fc;,r Your lmp9rtan-t Jtenewal Notice! • You, our subscribers, will get the first look at Season 12, and the chance to keep - or change - your seats, when you receive your renewal packet in the mail. You'll get a preview of our exciting play considerations for next season, including recent works that have gathered raves in New York. On your renewal form, you can also help us pick our new season by listing the plays you would like to see at the Public. Renewing is as easy as mailing us your form, or calling 321-9800. You can also renew in our theater lobby when we see you for She Stoops To Conquer performarices beginning February 25. Your order now guarantees you the best theater seats in town!
Public Perspective . Pittsburgh Public Theater • Page1
Oliver Goldsmith was a "wayward child of genius" who, despite wanderings and a poor scholastic record, wrote a classic novel (The Vicar of Wakefield), a classic poem (The Deserted Village) and a classic play (She Stoops to Conquer), which placed him among the great figures of English letters. Born in Jreland in November, 1728, Goldsmith himself was a classic figure who epitomized both the garret-artist, sought more as a debtor than as a writer, and the flamboyant socialite, wearing gaudy accessories and azure silk pants to appear in London society. He held little in reserve: generous to friends and sultanic in his tastes, any money he earned was soon spent. Likewise, whatever literary form he turned to was soon mastered: the exigencies of excessive shyness coupled with natural talent to refine his wit and insight far beyond the norm. Like young Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer, Goldsmith feared the company of well-born women. Indeed, all fashionable society intimidated this poor curate's son. He stammered when nervous and behaved outrageously at times in an effort to compensate for his timidity. "I was never distinguished for address," he frequently confessed, "and have often blundered in making my bow.'' Wendy Nardi