SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER

History

 The Abbey Theatre was founded in 1904 by W. B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory. Its precursors were the Irish Literary Theatre and Frank and Willie Fay’s National Dramatic Society. With patronage from Miss Annie Horniman, premises were purchased on Old Abbey Street and on December 27th 1904, the Abbey Theatre opened its doors for the first time. 

 CREDITS – SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER (1773) by OLIVER GOLDSMITH

 Gary Crossan Dick Muggins/Thomas Lisa Fox Bet Bouncer/Bridget Manus Halligan Tom Twist/Jeremy Jon Kenny Mr. Hardcastle Mark Lambert Sir Charles Marlow Charlotte McCurry Molly Slang/Pimple the Maid Caroline Morahan Miss Hardcastle Janet Moran Miss Neville Sean Murphy Aminadab/Diggory Rory Nolan Hastings Marion O’Dwyer Mrs. Hardcastle David Pearse Tony Lumpkin Bryan Quinn Jack Slang/Roger Marty Rea Young Marlow Conall Morrison Director Liam Doona Set designer Joan O’Clery Costume designer Conor Linehan Composer and Sound Designer Ben Ormerod Lighting Designer Muirne Bloomer Movement Director Ronan Phelan Additional Lyrics by Ronan Phelan Resident Assistant Director

 Some time ago I featured a story about the Malling Hansen writing ball, apparently Fredrich Nietzsche's type writer although the idea wasn't a success at the time. The writing ball re-surfaces in the documentary (some might say shockumentary) 'Shock Head Soul' the life of Daniel Paul Schreber, formerly head of the Supreme Court in Dresden, Germany and the ablest lawyer of his generation. The writing ball is re-configured with the help of CGI and apparently takes on a life of its own, somehow floating around the room resembling those prehistoric horseshoe crabs which yet persist. Schreber's most plaintive statement recorded in his letters considers his greatest pre-occupation, what happens to God when he, Schreber, has gone? Indeed! 

 On Saturday I enjoyed 'She Stoops to Conquer' at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The performance was conventional but the audience clearly enjoyed it, for many seemed to be in fits of laughter at the antics on the stage although, personally, the thing raised hardly a chortle with me. I have never worn a tricorn hat and nor do I know anyone who does but there are many in the play which was first performed in 1773. The eighteenth century must have been a more relaxed period than Shakespeare's time for gone are the vast swathes of blank verse that inhabit his works so that both the lower orders and the higher speak the same constantly witty prose peppered with archaisms and ancient figures of speech. The play respects the Aristotelian Unities of Time, Space and Action for Shakespeare never did, possibly because he had not read Aristotle. It seems to me that Shakespeare is partly a great writer and partly a great crackpot, disregarding the rules of antiquity yet writing reams of very creative blank verse. Shakespeare was intent on maintaining the world as it was so he clearly would have turned in his grave had he received word of the death of Charles the First at the hands of Parliament nor would he have approved the verse of John Milton, Parliament's great propagandist, although he might have admired his craft. After the death of Charles in 1649, Oliver Cromwell clamped down on the theatre, regarding it as a gaudy, insubstantial thing and a potential meeting place for Royalists. After the Interregnum the theatre was restored but no significant playwright appeared to fill the gap left by Shakespeare. Only six or so plays from this period are worth watching today compared with twenty or so by Shakespeare and a few by Marlowe too. 

One of these six is 'She Stoops to Conquer' by Oliver Goldsmith, an itinerant Grub street hack and 'doctor' from Dublin who spent years wandering on the continent before encountering Dr Samuel Johnson in London. ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ is a trite comedy of manners and a slight farce, but Goldsmith respects the unities. Therefore the work is emotionally restrained and tightly written, a product of the age of reason, of classical harmony and order. The plot centres upon a group of characters and their mistakes and confusions before resolution occurs. In short, two gentlemen, Mr Marlow and Mr Hastings, arrive at the inn known as The Three Pigeons. There is no room for them at The Three Pigeons so they are sent to an ‘inn’ by Tony Lumpkin who is Mrs Hardcastle’s son by a previous marriage but Lumpkin is actually sending them to the Hardcastle’s house. The seeds of a farce are thus established and the rest of the plot is constituted by Mr Marlow’s inability to speak to high class women except in some kind of stuttering, bumbling, bashful way so that Miss Hardcastle must pose as a servant in order to put him at his ease. Therefore, she must stoop to conquer. Of course, Shakespeare would have made Kate Hardcastle speak in blank verse so her transformation into a barmaid would have been indicated simply be her speaking prose but the point is that her marriage to Mr Marlow has been arranged by her father. Kate seems to fall in with this arrangement in a certain deranged, sheep-like way. Also it is apparent that Mr Marlow fails to recognise that Kate and the barmaid are the same person but this is put forward as a theatrical convention like Hamlet’s direct address to the audience (or soliloquy). There is a kind of sub plot, and it is here that Goldsmith breaks with his strict adherence to the unities, concerning Hastings and Miss Constance Neville who is purportedly betrothed to Tony Lumpkin (who is Kate’s half-brother and Constance’s cousin), at least in the mind of Mrs Hardcastle but Tony is really in love with a barmaid and is eager to help Constance and Hastings. Mrs Hardcastle has also deceived Tony about his coming of age when he will finally gain his inheritance. He has come of age but Mrs Hardcastle won’t let on and so he steals his mother’s jewels so that Hastings and Miss Neville might elope together to Paris. A rather awful thing to do to one’s mother but there is no love lost between Tony and Mrs Hardcastle who sees him as a sensitive weakling whereas his stepfather knows him to be a hard-drinking practical joker and merry maker. There’s plenty of gentle irony as Tony sings a song celebrating the delights of The Three Pigeons and berating ‘low’ behaviour while becoming rather low himself. This lusty sing-along and the performance of David Pearse as Tony are some of the highpoints of the play which is propelled at breakneck pace. The décor, costumes and mise en scene are conventional portrayals of an 18th century inn or house and there might have been a moment when the director might have considered updating the play but probably did not dare to do so since such a ploy might alienate a conventional audience. This is the Abbey Theatre, after all, Ireland’s national theatre, as the booming voice of the man played over the tannoy before the performance began. 

The play culminates with Tony Lumpkin and Mrs Hardcastle attempting to run away from the house but Tony just drives around and around until the carriage collapses into a horse pond, drenching Mrs Hardcastle who now believes that she is on ‘crack skull common’ then mis-recognises her husband who she believes to be a highwayman. In the final scene a classic denouement and everything is resolved. ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ is a marvellously witty product of the Enlightenment era which is still accessible and relevant today since it deals with topics of class and gender but the characters do not feel deeply as in a play by Shakespeare, for instance. Feeling is a rather feckless character who has seemed to wander off since Kate is now married to a man who she could not have loved. The operations of chance depicted in the play are made ironic by the restricted feeling given the performance by Goldsmith’s observation of conventions (the unities) and a conventional interpretation of the play is perfect in every way for it is lusty, deeply engaged and enthusiastic which any performance of this play must be. 

 Paul Murphy, Dublin, January 2015