Oh, the Times! Oh, the (Very Bad) Manners!

We like to think of the Eighteenth Century as a time of ponderous civility and powdered wigs, but these are city images. If an impudent playwright of that time had wanted to satirize country society, he might have created the ancestor of the sitcom and become an instant success. That’s exactly what happened to Oliver Goldsmith.

Goldsmith’s 1773 hit, “She Stoops to Conquer,” broke all the theatrical rules of the day. At that time, comedies were sentimental entertainments, designed to evoke genteel smiles and even tears. Laughter was revolutionary! But “She Stoops” gets a tight squeeze on the country upper class and never lets go.

Mrs. Hardcastle, lady of the manse, complains to her husband about the limitations of country life. Their old mansion looks like an inn, she says, and they never see anybody. Her oafish son from a previous marriage, Tony Lumpkin, excuses himself from staying with his elders; he’s expected at the “3 Pidgeons,” his favorite tavern, where he will soon make mischief for his stepfather.

Mr. Hardcastle tells his daughter Kate that he has selected a husband for her, and the young man will be coming to dinner tonight. Mrs. Hardcastle declares her intention to arrange a marriage between her adored Tony and his cousin Constance, who also lives in the house. (The two detest each other.) And all of this happens in the first few minutes of the play.
Additional complications follow when the suitors – Marlow for Kate and George for Constance – lose their way in the dark and are directed by someone at the tavern (who?) to an “inn,” which turns out to be the Hardcastles’ home. Mr. Hardcastle welcomes them heartily, but since the gentlemen believe they are paying guests at an inn, they ignore their host, insist on conferring with the cook about dinner and lounging in Mr. Hardcastle’s favorite chair.

Hearing that Kate Hardcastle has just arrived to meet him, Marlow freezes up, stammers and stares at the floor. Kate is determined to bring him out, saying he’s just exceedingly modest, but her father suspects the young man of “old-fashioned impudence.” She devises a plan to put Marlow more at his ease by stooping to disguise herself as a maid.

This play’s political incorrectness is part of what makes it funny, but British director Judy Holmes has also provided this 1773 comedy with tight action and a well-matched cast. The Barn’s opening night audience fully enjoyed Goldsmith’s 239-year-old script.

According to the biographers of his time, the playwright was unattractive, careless, intemperate, improvident and ill-mannered. In his youth, he had raised money to emigrate to America, but the ship sailed while he was at a party. He lost everything he earned to gambling and died ill and broke at age 46. Yet before he died, he numbered among his friends such achievers as Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Joshua Reynolds and David Garrick.

Judy Holmes and The Ross Valley Players have assembled some fine actors for “She Stoops to Conquer.”Alex Ross and Maureen O’Donoghue are the well-matched Hardcastles. (One delight is the wordless scene when Mr. Hardcastle is trying to keep his temper.) Sean Mirkovich is excellent as the bashful Marlow, with Jocelyn Roddie as Kate. Kushi Beauchamp plays cousin Constance, and Adam Roy is her sweetheart, George Hastings, Josh Garcia-Cotter portrays the troublesome Tony Lumpkin. Ross Valley regular, John Anthony Nolan, doubles as Diggory, the servant, and as Marlow’s father, Sir Charles. Sandi Rubay and Noah Benet complete the household staff.

“She Stoops to Conquer” will play at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center through Feb. 19, Thursdays through Sunday afternoons. Ticket prices range from $17 to $25. For complete information or reservations, call 456-9555 or see www.rossvalleyplayers.com