Felicitous comic conceit: a community-theater production of The Beggar's Opera as a microcosm of small-town tawdriness. It affords Anthony Hopkins a role in which he can really let loose without unbalancing the ensemble: a moonlighting director (a solicitor by day) who thinks he can be a caustic, eccentric genius with a cast of complete amateurs. But the entire cast -- the professionals playing the amateurs -- is prodigiously capable, and Jeremy Irons, as a transplanted widower who answers an audition ad to "Meet People -- Have Fun," ascends to the ranks of modern British cads while never being anything but sweet, innocent, and accommodating. Michael Winner, most often an action man, directs Alan Ayckbourn's stage play in a slam-bang manner that effectively stretches the four walls when it doesn't break them down completely. Jenny Seagrove, Prunella Scales, Lionel Jeffries, Patsy Kensit, Sylvia Syms, Barbara Ferris. (1988) — Duncan Shepherd