She Stoops to Conquer reviews at The Orange Tree Theatre

"A sublime staging of an evergreen Restoration comedy"

"The Orange Tree Theatre here delivers a gem of a production, with Greta Scacchi, David Horovitch and Freddie Fox among an excellent cast"

"Littler offers up a gloriously funny, Yuletide-set staging of She Stoops to Conquer, splendidly cast and perfectly played."

"The genius of the piece is that it makes us apprehend society as a form of theatre (hereafter comes Wilde) and also glean that the greatest impediment to individual self-realisation often lies within (hereafter, too, comes Dickens’s Scrooge). "

"A jolly good Christmas comedy"

"Freddie Fox is a delight"

"There are perfectly pitched performances with just the right touch of pathos as Oliver Goldsmith’s play gets a festive staging"

"One of the real pleasures of reviving the classics is discovering which particular aspects might shine anew. Director Tom Littler’s sparkling 250th anniversary production of Oliver Goldsmith’s fizzing comedy of manners is certainly very funny."

"The performances are beautifully pitched. David Horovitch’s Mr Hardcastle is the stand-out star in an excellent ensemble. He achieves so much with so little. "

" It’s all such good fun but surprisingly moving, too"

"This jazzy Goldsmith works a treat"

"This production of the Oliver Goldsmith classic will wrongfoot anyone expecting the usual 18th-century Georgian trimmings."

"Anett Black and Neil Irish’s beguiling set design — sensitively lit by Jonathan Chan — turns the Orange Tree’s intimate, in-the-round space into a well-worn rustic lounge that briefly turns into a tavern where the boozy locals, a platoon of community extras, admire the hearty singing of Hardcastle’s ne’er-do-well stepson, Tony (the spirited Guy Hughes)."

"Littler has assembled a cast alert to all the comic opportunities. Greta Scacchi bustles around as Hardcastle’s defiantly aspirational wife, desperate to keep up with London fashion by way of magazine articles. Tanya Reynolds glows as willowy daughter Kate, who discovers she can stir Marlow’s ardour if she drops a few rungs down the social ladder. Sabrina Bartlett is her dizzy niece Constance, while Robert Mountford makes a particularly strong impression as Marlow’s dapper friend and counsellor, Hastings."

"One big, joyous muddle of deception"

"Starry cast breathes fresh life into this Christmas reimagining of Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy of manners"

"It’s a highly physical production, with well-honed slapstick ramping up the comedy generated by the actors’ chemistry."

"An irresistible romp"

"A dynamite younger cast headed by Freddie Fox and Tanya Reynolds power this irresistible romp through the classic comedy"

"With judicious modern tweaks to the script, it’s buoyed along by a top-tier cast who go full ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ on this production’s updated 1930s setting."

"Littler uses the theatre’s in-the-round setting beautifully, coupling the cosy oak panelling of Anett Black and Neil Irish’s set with the characters’ many conspiratorial asides to the audience. He keeps the play wry and light on its feet, as everyone frothily falls foul of class pretension. We revel as gleefully as the play in the posh stupidity on display."

"Director Tom Littler pitches Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy into the 1930s with sparkling results."

"This is a warm, affectionate affair, delivered with lovely timing by an excellent cast. Fox’s Marlow is wonderfully funny: a quivering jelly in polite conversation with real Kate; a pouting peacock with Kate the “barmaid”. Reynolds winds him in with similar delightful precision — her suggestive furniture polishing is quite something."

"In the cosy setting of the Orange Tree, it’s a seasonal treat."

"The plot involves a young blade called Marlow (a floppy-haired Freddie Fox totally at home in the role) who is hopelessly shy with his own class of girl but sexually forward to bar staff, requiring the handsome Kate to pose as one in order to bag him. She’s played with an attacking savviness by Tanya Reynolds, one of a clutch of winning performances (she’s in cahoots with her friend Constance, played by Sabrina Bartlett) that bring this Georgian masterpiece fully alive."

"Director Tom Littler has set this in the 1930s with a flavour of P. G. Wodehouse - there’s a doddery old servant (Richard Derrington) who shunts a drinks trolley in slow motion. It’s a great idea. Like Wodehouse’s stories, Goldsmith’s play radiates a mellow happiness untouched by any malice."

"A charming, starry Christmas package"

"False jollity periodically mars Tom Littler’s handsome, starry production of Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy"

"Apart from Horovitch and Hughes, the acting is often amusing but inauthentic."

"The show is a charming Christmas package. It looks ravishing thanks to co-designers Neil Irish and Anett Black, the incidental jazz music is great, and troupes of locals have been enlisted to act as Tony’s cronies in an early tavern singalong."

"Not quite conquered "

"Historically, Oliver Goldsmith’s 18th-century town and country comedy, She Stoops To Conquer, has also been a money-spinner. But if you’re looking for a fast buck, this may not be one for your portfolio."

"Fox is not naturally reticent or bashful as Marlow, but he’s got ‘bouncing, swaggering puppy’ off pat. And as the caricatured lady of the manor, Scacchi looks like a fairground fortune teller, in a riotous jumble of orange and turquoise. Some of the saucer-eyed acting would be more safely observed from across a field, with opera glasses."

"Yet buried inside Goldsmith’s plot there remains a seam of gold and the cast do strike the occasional nugget."