Aristocrats, commoners, and more than one case of mistaken identity highlight Emporia State Theatre Department’s upcoming play “She Stoops To Conquer, Or Mistakes of The Night.” The play will show four consecutive nights starting at 7:30 Wednesday in King Hall’s Bruder Theatre.

The play, a period piece set in Britain just prior to the American Revolution, is a romantic comedy originally designed to poke subtle fun at the rituals and roles of the upper class at the time.

“This play was written in 1773 by Oliver Gold Smith, and is his attempt to fly in the face of a popular style of comedy in which the goal was to instill pathos and noble sentiment and the virtues of the upper class, rather than to amuse you or try and make you laugh,” said Jim Ryan, professor of theater and director of “She Stoops.” “Some writers like Smith believed that comedy should make you laugh and give you a spirit of sentimentality.”

“She Stoops” primarily utilizes the vehicle of mistaken identity to drive the plot and comedy forward, while simultaneously providing a background moral about judging people by their appearances, Ryan said.

The play also utilizes a comparative look into various aspects of British life in the 1770s, including family and cultural differences, Ryan said, and satirizes both the attitude differences found in differing regions of Britain and the undiscussed similarities between them.

“The play is first a romantic comedy, boy seeks girl, girl seeks boy, with obstacles and comedy helping things along,” Ryan said. “One male character is open-minded about pursuing women of a lower social and economic class than his own, which was an issue back then.”

The main story revolves around two characters engaged in simultaneous romantic pursuits, played by senior theater majors Ben Fleer and Kelsey Fredricks.

“The scene is largely set in the home of a Mr. Newcastle, a country gentleman, and I play Marlow, a suitor to one of his daughters,” Fleer said. “I end up running into his trickster stepson, who confuses me into thinking the master of the house is an innkeeper, and that sets up the first of a few mistaken identities in the play.”

This performance is also Fleer’s final one at ESU, something he said is met with mixed feelings.

“I think that you get so into doing theater that I haven’t really thought about it until recently,” Fleer said. “But I’ve given this character everything I’ve got, and I’m really looking forward to portraying him.”

On the other side of the play, Fredricks plays a woman enamored with a lower-class boy, who ultimately resorts to disguise to win his affection, Fredricks said.

“Kate is the daddy’s little girl who falls in love with a bashful boy who’s uncomfortable around her, so she pretends to be a barmaid,” Fredricks said. “She ultimately tricks him into declaring his love for me, and that plays into the whole theme of the story, about how that kind of thing really doesn’t matter.”

Also starring in the play is senior theatre major Bob Hart, who portrays Mr. Newcastle, a man obsessed with marrying off his daughters to proper gentlemen.

“Mr. Newcastle is kind of a blustery old guy who’s trying to marry off his two daughters, and his inability to get out of his past mindset is a source of comedy for the play,” Hart said. ‘The style is real particular for the piece and time period, and we’re trying to capture that and recreate it through each character.”

Even though the comedy was written in 1773, much of the humor and lessons are still very relevant to audiences today, Hart said.

In addition to bringing humor styles and lessons from the period, the ESU production of the play also involved the creation of elaborate set pieces and costumes to recreate the flavor of the time, Ryan said.

“We as faculty have a sort of grid every four years and touch upon Shakespeare, some costume drama, some period pieces, as well as more modern drama, and this year our thing was to get something from the 18th century,” Ryan said. “Someone coming to this play should expect lovely costumes and set pieces, as well as many different dialects like high British, Cockney, and north country English.”

Ryan said “She Stoops” is expected to run around a full two hours, including a fifteen-minute intermission.

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