"She stoops to conquer"

Last evening, Cineworld showed the National Theatre's live relay of what I always thought the silliest of our classic plays; but in this brilliant production, it fizzed into life from the first scene, and momentum was sustained throughout. Music and dance, not overdone, provided the continuity, and a clear if narrow pathway between Shakespearean low comedy and the wordiness of Wilde. "She stoops to conquer" has to be the defining English 18th century play: directed by the astonishingly youthful Jamie Lloyd, it's - in the words of co-heroine Constance Neville - "the very pink of perfection."

Caroline being on her way back from spending three nights in Scotland, I was there on my own with four friends, who provided generous amounts of food and wine for the interval: hence no pink perfection Ben & Jerry ice cream on this occasion.