She Stoops to Conquer
Medway Little Theatre, Rochester

The fragment of GCSE boy still lodged in my brain dreaded seeing a 280-year-old play.

Sure, it was Oliver Goldsmith’s classic, at which I once giggled under my breath in the uni library. But on a muggy Thursday night?

As uni taught me, I should have done my research. This was no piece of antiquity but a modern-English script set in the 1950s.

And how did it come alive! The cosy theatre chortled at the stuck-up young millionaire Marlow (Mike Dickinson), who’s cursed by a total inability to speak to girls. Unless he thinks they’re common - then he’s a dirty-minded dog.

So the wealthy Kate (Katie Foster) pretends to be a cockney barmaid to seduce him.

When Marlow’s father turns up to see how their courting is getting along, things can only end in disaster.

Mike Dickinson was the undisputed star among a strong cast which was bigger than the amateur theatre’s usual offering.

Michael Bath’s directing was clever to involve the audience, at one point sending the actors to sit next to the punters.

It was all part of a strategy to take Goldsmith out of textbooks and into people’s hearts - and it worked.