In Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 “laughing comedy,” schemes and wits abound during the course of an evening at a crumbling country estate. Two fashionable young urbanites, lost in the country, find themselves the targets of trickery at the hands of a mischievous ne’er-do-well and a barmaid who is more than she seems. Mistaking the estate for an inn, the two bachelors are shocked to encounter their would-be loves on the premises. In classic farce style, this breakneck comedy skewers social mores, families and old-fashioned courtship.