She Stoops To Conquer

(Britain's National Theatre production, filmed for cinema screening)

Oliver Goldsmith's 1773 play 'She Stoops To Conquer' stands up remarkably well 215 years later in this filmed stage production that pushes the period piece almost through the 'camp' barrier.

Apart from finding it entertaining I spent the entire screening trying to remember where I had seen Katherine Kelly (left in the above photo) previously and it was only half an hour afterwards over a coffee with friends that it suddenly hit me that for years I had watched her portray a barmaid in 'Coronation Street'. Ironic casting considering as Kate Hardcastle in the play, she impersonates a barmaid.

In essence a gentleman, en route to meet for the first time a family whose daughter may be a marriage prospect, mistake the intended destination for a public inn and the family therein for common inn keepers. A romantic comedy of mistaken identity and manners.