In December 2025, we presented Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, directed by John Crabtree.

Mistaken identity lies at the root of much comedy. A is mistaken for B and complications ensue. But could anyone really confuse a private house for a public inn, as happens in this imperishable comedy? Goldsmith always claimed that it could and that his play which enjoyed an unexpected triumph in 1773 was based on a true incident in his childhood.

Making his way home from his school in Ireland, he lost his way and found himself at nightfall in a remote village. Asking a local to direct him to 'the best house', the wag directed him to the residence of the local squire claiming it to be an inn. Goldsmith lorded it over his hosts and only the next morning, when the young man asked for the bill, did he discover his mistake.

So, Goldsmith's comedy, in which Marlow and Hastings are led by the mischievous Tony Lumpkin to mistake Mr Hardcastle's house for an inn, is not altogether implausible. But the author, who subtitled his play 'The Mistakes of a Night', builds on that simple deception to create a series of dazzlingly escalating misunderstandings, practical jokes and mistaken identities.