Comedy is social. It is never private. A man laughing to, for and by himself invariably excites suspicion. He must be a nut, people feel.
Comedy is replete with nuances of class and caste, and the pitfalls and pratfalls of making social errors. Nowhere is this truer than in English comedy, or more enjoyably so than in Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. This 18th century classic, now being performed at off-Broadway's Roundabout Theater, revolves entirely around conditioned social-status reflexes.
Two traveling young gallants, Marlowe (Robert G. Murch) and Hastings (Tom V.V. Tammi), are told that the home of Mr. Hardcastle...
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