Charley's Aunt

Synopsis

Charley's rich Aunt, Dona Lucia, is visiting from Brazil (where the nuts come from!). The timing couldn't be better. Her presence as a chaperone will allow him and his friend Jack to invite their respective true loves, Amy and Kitty, for luncheon to ask for their hands in marriage. Time is ticking, Amy is soon to leave for Scotland, but where is Charley's Aunt? On learning she is delayed by several days, scuppering their romantic plans, they blackmail their eccentric friend, Lord Fancourt Babberley, to pose as Dona Lucia. Chaos ensue as the imposter Aunt is courted by Jack's father and Amy's guardian. And then Charlie's real Aunt arrives...

Our Review:

29 June 2010

Brandon Thomas' play Charley's Aunt may be nearly 120 years old, but it is as funny today as it was then. While definitely a piece of its era, the farcical physical and verbal humour simply does not date.

The plot is relatively simple – Charley and Jack invite Amy and Kitty, with whom they are enamoured, to lunch to meet Charley's wealthy widowed aunt, Dona Lucia. Charley has never met her himself. However at the last minute, she cancels, and in order to provide a chaperone for the two young ladies they enlist the assistance of their friend Lord Fancourt Babberly to impersonate her. Madness and mayhem ensue as 'Charley's Aunt' becomes the target of affection for both Jack's father and Amy's uncle; then the real Dona Lucia arrives, and the dynamics change again.

The Royal Exchange take this Victorian farce and move it forward into the Art Deco Edwardian period, but this in no way detracts from the story. The set by [Joh...

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