Review: She Stoops to Conquer, Boston Manor Park

Inside the beautiful grounds of Boston Manor House sits a small walled garden. Each summer, it hosts the Walled Garden Summer Season, combining in-house repertory theatre with visiting concerts, comedy, family work and new musicals. There’s a lovely cafe in the stately Manor House and then within the walled garden a dedicated bar with local beers on tap. It’s clearly set up for a family event, and even dogs are welcome, albeit on condition that they are well behaved!

One of this year’s repertory productions is Oliver Goldsmith’s classic comedy of manners and social expectations, She Stoops to Conquer. The action takes place over a single evening, during which Miss Hardcastle (Danni Ashby) disguises herself as a barmaid to discover that her would-be suitor, Charles Marlow (Ewan Reilly), is not one bit shy around women he thinks are from a lower social standing. Faced with Miss Hardcastle in her position as the lady of the house and daughter of well-respected upper-class Mr Hardcastle (Terry Burns), Charles is barely able to string a sentence together to address her, but as the barmaid cleaning and dusting, she finds him bold and confident. Over the evening, there is a series of misunderstandings and outright deceptions.

Director Jonathan Ashby-Rock has a particularly strong hand for farce, revelling in the confusion as Tony Lumpkin (a very enjoyable Duncan Shelton) sets up Marlow and his friend George Hastings (Gregor Duncan) to treat Mr Hardcastle as an innkeeper and his stately home as some sort of lower-class inn. This is beautifully played; the growing absurdity draws many laughs, and the characters’ asides to the audience, as they try to figure out the strange goings-on, are strongly delivered.

The cast have some notable highlights. Ashby makes for an engaging Miss Hardcastle, with a clear mischievous streak balancing her poise. Reilly provides great laughs, especially with Marlow’s tongue-tied attempts at speaking to high society ladies. Shelton’s Lumpkin brings an energy throughout, clearly relishing every moment of the mischief he has created. That energy really suits the outdoors, with laughs coming thick and fast as the sun sets.  

There were unfortunate sound issues throughout, with a lot of late cues for mics to be turned on and then mics cutting in and out mid-speech. At least one main cast member sounded like they had an issue with their mic throughout, so I was surprised the mic wasn’t swapped with one of the supporting cast at the interval. The lighting works particularly well, and the sunset is nicely timed for the ending, as various schemes lead us – literally – down the garden path. It also allows a couple of nice moments which acknowledge the garden setting, as characters move through the audience. The set design (Victoria Spearing) needs to accommodate all of the rep productions, so it is deliberately simple; a wooden frame with a lounge chair and other small pieces of furniture comfortably places us in a nice sitting room with a fire.

On a warm summer evening, the Walled Garden proves an ideal home for Goldsmith’s fun comedy. While it might get a bit chilly as the sun sets (do consider borrowing a blanket in return for a donation to Hounslow Youth Theatre Programme), She Stoops to Conquer will keep you entertained with its joyful understanding of the charm and silliness of Goldsmith’s classic. 

Writer: Oliver Goldsmith
Director: Jonathan Ashby-Rock
Designer: Victoria Spearing
Costumes: Erica Malcolmson
Musical Director: Madeline Baron
Produced by The Arts Centre, Hounslow 

She Stoops to Conquer plays at Boston Manor Park’s Walled Garden Summer Season until Sunday 23 August