ANYONE looking for festive fun this season should head to the Orange Tree, Richmond, to see Tom Littler’s joyous production of She Stoops to Conquer. Peter Hall in his autobiography lists Oliver Goldsmith’s play among ‘the small collection of masterpieces which, while looking honestly at the absurdity of human behaviour, end up cele-brating it’. Given that Sir Peter’s list includes Twelfth Night, A Mid-summer Night’s Dream and The Marriage of Figaro, you see how highly he rates the play.
I share his enthusiasm and have no problem accepting Goldsmith’s premise that two young travellers mistake a country house for
