She Stoops to Conquer

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 554, 3 February 1950, Page 11

She Stoops to Conquer

OME critics have been tempted to ascribe the long-continued success of She Stoops to Conquer to its inoffensiveness, to the fact that Victorian Audiences could take it ‘without a blush; so that while Restoration Comedy was "resting" and even Sheridan was looked at askance, She Stodps to Conquer was continuing to win friends and influence People. And now, it has received the accolade of inclusion in the BBC World Theatre series, undoubted proof that the piece has the more -positive comic virtues as well. To be frank, I have seldom enjoyed a radio presentation more. It’s uproariously funny. Mostly it’s the humour of implication and extrication, with the angles of the complications somewhat blunted for us by subsequent imitations, but still good for an appreciative chuckle. Then the dialogue, though not as incisive as Sheridan’s, is none the less pointed, and its shapeliness and rhythm are sharply silhouetted by the restricted radio medium. Gusto was the keynote of the whole production. The pace was good, a brisk trot, and pauses in the action were pleasantly bridged by a few bars of music sugges- ~ tive of mob-caps and warming pans (though passengers may protest at the fact that Goldsmith’s vehicle, like all others doing the World Theatre run, was

held up for 36 minutes in mid-course to allow for the slow but necessary passage of news and station notices). Yes, time and the BBC have been kind to Goldsmith, have, in fact, added instead of taken away. It is pees for the listener to hear even a simple aside such as Kate’s "Generous man, I : now begin to admire him," without telegonic overtones of everything from Old Time Theaytre to Gilbertian farce. And in the case of Tony Lumpkin time and the BBC have surpassed themselves, for what is that loud-voiced wag but .an 18th Century Wilfred Pickles, acting

the compere for all he’s worth? Up till now I have been deceived by the fetchingness of Kate’s farthingale into thinking it was round her that the plot revolves-I now Tealise that Goldsmith would never

have given Tony so many of the play’s best: lines ("loud as a hog in a gate," "buzzing round like a catherine wheel"), if he had not intendéd us to Love That

Man:

M.

B.