Orange Tree Theatre (OT) today announces the full cast for Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer. Artistic Director Tom Littler directs Freddie Fox and Tanya Reynolds as Charles Marlow and Kate Hardcastle, with David Horovitch and Greta Scacchi as Mr and Mrs Hardcastle, joined by Sabrina Bartlett, Richard Derrington, Guy Hughes, and Robert Mountford in this celebration of chaos and courtship. The production opens on 22 November, with previews from 18 November, and runs until 6 January.
Artistic Director Tom Littler said today:“We are delighted to welcome such a tremendous company for Oliver Goldsmith’s heartwarming and hilarious play. Two hundred and fifty years since it premiered, it remains one of the liveliest, sharpest, and most generous plays in the canon. She Stoops to Conquer brought laughter back into the 18th century theatre, but it also introduced a new level of acute psychology and paved the way for Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward and more.”
Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no fibs.
Christmas at Hardcastle Hall. David Horovitch (Miss Marple, Mr Turner) and Emmy Award-winning Greta Scacchi (Heat and Dust, White Mischief, War and Peace) play Mr and Mrs Hardcastle, who have rather different ideas of the perfect Christmas. She craves cool jazz and cocktails; he wants a warm fire and the company of his bookish daughter Kate. Kate Hardcastle (Tanya Reynolds, Sex Education, A Mirror) can’t wait to meet her intended fiancé, Charles Marlow (Olivier Award nominee Freddie Fox, The Great, Slow Horses, House of the Dragon). But when Marlow is stricken with nerves, Kate must act fast.
Meanwhile, confusion reigns. Kate’s friend Constance (Sabrina Bartlett, Bridgerton, The Larkins, While the Sun Shines) is trying to steal her own diamonds to run off to France with her dim-witted beau, Hastings (Robert Mountford, Spike, The Habit of Art, UK Theatre Award nominee). Tony Lumpkin (Guy Hughes, Cyrano, The Little Matchgirl) has tricked the visitors into believing that Hardcastle Hall is a pub. And Diggory (Richard Derrington, The Tempest, The Archers) is rapidly proving to be the worst butler in the world.
OT Artistic Director Tom Littler (The Circle), with Francesca Ellis, directs an all-star cast in the 250th anniversary production of Oliver Goldsmith’s glorious comedy of misunderstanding. A riot of mistaken identities and marital mishaps is relocated to a 1930s country house world of Jeeves and Wooster.
Oliver Goldsmith’s(1730 – 1774) best-known works are his novel The Vicar of Wakefield, long poem The Deserted Village, and play She Stoops to Conquer. The Orange Tree previously staged his play The Good Natur’d Man.
Sabrina Bartlett plays Constance Neville. Her theatre credits include While The Sun Shines (Orange Tree Theatre), The Seagull (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Cyrano De Bergerac (Southwark Playhouse). Her television credits include The Larkins, Bridgerton, Victoria III, The Innocents, Knightfall, Versailles 2, Game Of Thrones, Virtuoso, Davinci’s Demons Season III, Poldark, Midsomer Murders XVII, The Passing Bells, Doctor Who, Holby City, Suspects; and for film, The Crossing and Respite.
Richard Derrington plays Diggory and Sir Charles. His theatre credits include The Tempest, For Services Rendered (Jermyn Street Theatre), Cabaret (English Theatre Of Frankfurt), Chekhov Shorts – The Proposal, The Bear & Swan Song (Everyman Theatre Cheltenham), Mrs Warren’s Profession, Cider With Rosie (Everyman Theatre Cheltenham, Tour), Spanish Wives (The Bridge Company), Dear Liar (Vienna English Theatre), Neighbourhood Watch (London, New York, UK Tour), Swan Song, A Christmas Carol, Death of A Salesman, The Tempest, Midwinter Dream (Bridge House Theatre), Holiday Snap, It Runs In The Family, Out Of Order (Mill at Sonning), Breaking The Code (Chester Gateway Theatre), Virtual Reality, Haunting Julia, The Boy Who Fell Into A Book (Stephen Joseph Theatre and Tour), Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI , Coriolanus, Merry Wives Of Windsor, Dance of Death (Royal Shakespeare Company), Hamlet (Old Vic), Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Liverpool Playhouse), The Maids (Salisbury Playhouse), Cinderella And Her Naughty Naughty Sisters (Lyric Hammersmith), King Lear (Union Theatre) and Over The Moon (New Wimbledon Studio). His television credits include The Queen, Doc Martin (Series 4), Doctors, The Bill, Casualty, Dream Team, My Dad’s Prime Minister, EastEnders, Agatha Christie’s Poirot (Season 5), Jupiter Moon, New Avengers; and for film, The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Unhallowed Ground and Planet Rethink.
Freddie Fox plays Charles Marlow. His theatre credits include Hamlet (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Travesties (West End, Olivier Award nomination), An Ideal Husband (West End), Edmond de Bergerac (Birmingham), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Southwark Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Crucible), The Judas Kiss (Duke of York’s Theatre), Hay Fever (Noel Coward Theatre), Cause Célèbre, A Flea in Her Ear (Old Vic) and The Last 5 Years (Barbican). His television work includes House of the Dragon, Slow Horses, The Great, The Pursuit of Love, White House Farm, The Crown, Cucumber and Banana; The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Shadow Line, Any Human Heart, Worried About the Boy and Parade’s End; and for film, Pride, The Riot Club, The Three Musketeers, St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold, Frankenstein, Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur and Fanny Lye Deliver’d.
David Horovitch plays Mr Hardcastle. His theatre credits include Absurd Person Singular, When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre), Losing Louis (Trafalgar Studios), Taking Sides and Collaboration (Duchess Theatre), Bedroom Farce (Duke of York’s Theatre), Mary Stuart, Life is a Dream (Donmar Warehouse), Cymbeline, Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost (RSC), Spinning into Butter, Seven Jewish Children (Royal Court), Hysteria (Hampstead Theatre), The Tempest, Major Barbara (Manchester Royal Exchange) and Grief (National Theatre). For television he is perhaps most well-known for his role as Inspector Slack in Miss Marple and further television credits include House of The Dragon, The Murders At White House Farm, Dad’s Army, Piece of Cake, Great Expectations, Bognor, Hold the Back Page, Piece of Cake, Love Hurts, Westbeach, Just William and Ivanhoe; and for film, One of Us, The Creeping, Summerland, Rebecca, Mr Turner, Solomon and Gaenor, Cassandra’s Dream and The Infiltrator.
Guy Hughes plays Tony Lumpkin.His theatre credits include The Nutcracker, Cyrano, Twelfth Night and The Little Matchgirl (Bristol Old Vic), Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Little Matchgirl (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Winter’s Tale (Cheek By Jowl), Othello and The Merchant of Venice (Royal Shakespeare Company); and for film The Rise and Fall of The Crays.
Tanya Reynolds plays Kate Hardcastle. Her theatre credits include A Mirror and Last Words You’ll Hear (Almeida Theatre), It’s Not Like It’s Illegal (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Scenes with Girls (Royal Court). Her television credits include The Decameron, 4Stories: On The Edge, The Baby, I Hate You, Sex Education, Breeders, and Delicious. And for film, Timestalkers, Harold, The Purple Crayon, Emma, Undergods, Fanny Lye Deliver’d, and The Revenger: an Unromantic Comedy.
Greta Scacchi plays Mrs Hardcastle. Her theatre credits include The Entertainer (Garrick Theatre), The Glass Menagerie (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Seagull (Black Swan, Perth), Bette & Joan (West End), Nothing Personal, Mary Stuart (Ensemble Theatre).Her television credits include One Trillion Dollars, The Royal Nanny, Darby and Joan, The Terror, Poirot – Elephants Can Remember, The Trojan Horse, Miss Austen Regrets. She is best known for her roles in the films White Mischief, Presumed Innocent, The Player, Emma, Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny and Looking for Alibrandi. Other film credits include He Aint Heavy, Run Rabit Run, Ta L’avevo Detto, Waiting for the Barbarians, Head Full Of Honey, Operation Finale, and La Tenerezza.
Robert Mountford plays George Hastings.His theatre credits include The Habit of Art, Into the Night and The Haunting of Alice Bowles (Original Theatre Company), All’s Well That Ends Well, Cancelling Socrates, The Odyssey (Jermyn Street Theatre), Spike (UK tour/Newbury Watermill), and Vagabonds – My Phil Lynott Odyssey (UK tour). Most recently he has appeared as surgeon Rajan Sinha in Holby City. Other television credits include Square, Torn, Silent Witness, One Night, EastEnders, Casualty, Doctors, Reverse Psychology, The World According to Bex and Michael Wood’s, The Story of India and London’s Burning.
Artistic Director of the OT Tom Littler directs, with Community Director Francesca Ellis. His theatre credits include The Circle (Orange Tree Theatre), which is touring in spring 2024, Saturday Night (Jermyn Street Theatre, Arts Theatre), A Little Night Music (Budapest) Good Grief (Theatre Royal Bath), Dances of Death (Gate Theatre), Martine (Finborough Theatre), Miss Julie and Creditors (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, Jermyn Street), Tonight at 8.30, Cancelling Socrates, The Tempest, The Odyssey, 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre), Cabaret (English Theatre Frankfurt, Deutsches Theater Munich), and Hamlet (Guildford Shakespeare Company). He was Artistic Director of Jermyn Street Theatre from 2017 to 2022, before moving to the OT.
