Theater Review—

Goldsmith Comedy Is Given Well-Rounded Treatment At Little Theatre

By Julie Stern

The first thing to mention about the current Little Theater production — Oliver Goldsmith’s classic comedy She Stoops To Conquer, under the usual capable direction of Ruth Anne Baumgartner — is that nine days before the show opened, they lost the actor playing the wiseacre-catalyst Tony Lumpkin and had to find a last minute replacement. That replacement, Jacob Aviner, newly graduated from Weston High School, was a remarkable piece of good fortune, taking on the part as if he were born into it.

Conversely, along with this youngest member of the cast, two of the oldest veterans turn in their best performances that I have seen from them. Rob Pawlikowski, as Mr Hardcastle, and John Pyron, in the dual role of a tavern landlord and the father of the hapless hero, are both charming and totally believable.

That said, the play requires a certain investment of patience and attention from the audience. A Restoration comedy from the 18th Century, its trajectory entails getting the hero and heroine together, but only after much deception, confusion, and intrigue, accompanied by some lovely classical guitar.

The plot revolves around the fact that the socially awkward Mr Marlow is so uncomfortable around women of his own class that he is rendered speechless. With women of a lower social position, though, he can banter with the best of them.

On a night when he is traveling to meet the young woman chosen for his bride — the daughter of his father’s best friend, Squire Hardcastle — he has a practical joke played on him by Hardcastle’s stepson, Tony Lumpkin. The irrepressible Tony directs him to Hardcastle’s house, but fools him into thinking that it is an inn. Thus when he meets Kate Hardcastle, he imagines her to be a barmaid, and so flirts with her seductively.

Kate figures this out and relishes the irony of it. Her father, however, is outraged by Marlow’s apparent disrespect, and the casual way he treats the establishment like a public tavern…

Meanwhile, Hardcastle’s shrewish wife is conniving to marry her son Tony off to Kate’s best friend, the orphaned Miss Neville, who is actually in love with Marlow’s best friend, Mr Hastings.

Lisbet Higham is properly spirited as Kate, while Megan Poitras is a proper best friend. The quartet of lovers is rounded out by Ward Whipple as Marlow and David Hartigan as Hastings.

Great credit should also be given to Marguerite Foster, who is listed in the playbill as “Character Coach.”  I think it must be she who is responsible for the droll performances of the obstreperous quintet of servants and maids: Linda Panovich-Sachs, Nick Kaye, Michael Cassidy, Miles Aldrich, and Ms Foster herself.

Tristan Speed doubles as one more servant, and also plays the guitar in the intervals. According to the program notes he has performed at local coffee houses and venues. He is definitely worth going to hear, as is this entire production at The Little Theatre.

(Three performances remain of this production, with curtain on Friday and Saturday, July 22-23, at 8 pm, and Sunday, July 24, at 2 pm.

Tickets are $20 adults, $10 ages 10 and under, and can be reserved by calling 203-270-9144. The theater is at 18 Orchard Hill Road in Newtown.)