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May 20. 1969 The N.C. Essay Page 2 North Girolina Ployers Sharp in Goldsmith By CHARLES COOKE Last night, nearing the end of an impressive two-week run here, the first American College Theater Festi val presented, at Ford's Theater, 0- liver Goldsmith's deathless comedy, "She Stoops to Conquer", or "The Mis takes of a Night," in a brilliantly successful production by the School of Drama of the North Carolina School of the Arts. Two more performances will be given today, at 2 and at 7:30 p.m. The audience that filled Ford's had not the slightest difficulty in making the primary adjustment--sus- pension of disbelief--necessary to enjoyment of the venerable but some times clumsy dramatic form known as the C o m e d y of Mistaken Identity. (Even though, in this case, not only are people misidentified all over the place, but a rambling old English family residence is mistaken for an inn--a gorgeously impossible error, on which the play's entire action is based!) Clumsiness was conspiculously absent from this performance, owing in part, o f course, to Goldsmith's smooth, twinkly and expertly con-s structed script--and in part to su perbly creative performances by most of the cast, rising to a level of raucous, marvelous character-building by David Wood as Mr. Hardcastle, Cynthia Darlow as his wife and Gary Beach as Tony Lumpkin. English comedy these last sever al centuries, has been taken for a not-so-comic roller-coaster ride. Shakespearean comedy was follow ed in 1642 by the Puritan Blackout (All Actors in Stage Plays, Inter ludes, or other Common Plays to be Punished as Rogues".) Then, in an unsurprising blacklash to repression came the gamy Restoration Comedies of Wycherley and Congreve and then came the strangest period of all: the era of Sentimental Comedy, some times called "Weeping Comedy" or, snobbishly Frenchified, "Comedie Larmoyante." That was when to laugh in a theater--even to smile--as at Colley Cibber's "Love's Last Shift" or Steele's "The Conscious Lovers"-- was considered ungenteel. NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS NCSA The N. C. ESSAY STAFF Editor Tony Senter Co-editor Lyrtn Bernhardt Feature Writers. . .Kathy Fitzgerald Robert Lingelbaoh Dance Editor .... Sandra Williams Political Dennis Williamson Typists Pat Yancey Carol Johnson Business Manager. . . . Tess Morton Layout and Design . . . . Tom Cavano Advertising Folly Crocker Art David Wood Loma Frady Advisor Anthony Fragola It was in another backlash reac tion that Oliver Goldsmith wrote his masterpiece, "She Stoops to Conquer," which could well be called (although I never heard anybody but myself so describe it) a "Laughing Comedy," i.e., a comedy written for the nobly innocent purpose of making audiences titter, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, in a word laugh, and in two words enjoy themselves. Dr. Goldsmith triumphed so jol- lily--at the play's first performance Af SMETS *'• nmmuBtr Ye PuBlic house We Serve Monday Nite Is (Also Pizza) AMATEUR NITE And TRY YOUR THING We need a banjo player and a pianist for summer supper hour. in 1773, according to glowing re ports, and certainly last night at Ford's--that I am moved to rejoice that the gentle soul lived 200 years before Black Comedy came along to flood the English-speaking world with its bitterness. I was especially struck by the North Carolinian cast's sharp, confi dent attack: at the very outset,once the chandeliers had been lighted; in the brawling tavern scene that fol lowed; and in fact at every opening of every major episode. The players made you respectfully take notice, as, to go to music for a comparison, the masterly bow attack of a Heifetz or a Ricci does in comparison to that of run-of-the-mill violinists. icon't on page 3) 9EAVTIWL eiRis- ffmcxep TO meiv 61RL6- AmCTfD TO HOMELY HE to. IF TH£VW rich. Dial. Pithlikhrnk-llrfll S>ii(U(atc I9G9 W HAWP50ME HfM- PK>a£M WITH £S>OALITV mm to M 55)(gS- I B W me To af emee. B&VTI- FO-OR LomD seBxe IT AFaia
N.C. Essay (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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May 20, 1969, edition 1
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