ERT - She Stoops to Conquer

The Forgotten Classics of the Stage series by Everyman Repertory Theatre continues with a rehearsed reading of Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer," presented on Sunday, July 21, at 2 p.m. in the third floor Blue Café space at the Camden Opera House, 29 Elm St.

When Goldsmith’s play was first produced, it was discussed as an example of the revival of laughing comedy over the sentimental comedy seen as dominant on the English stage since the success of "The Conscious Lovers," written by Sir Richard Steele in 1722. An essay published in a London magazine in 1773, entitled "An Essay on the Theatre; Or, A Comparison between Laughing And Sentimental Comedy," argued that sentimental comedy, a false form of comedy, had taken over the boards from the older and more truly comic laughing comedy, though some people suspect that Goldsmith wrote the essay as a "puff" piece to advertise the play.