Humble Boy

Synopsis

A comedy about broken vows, failed hopes and the joys of beekeeping. All is not well in the Humble hive. Thirty five year old Felix Humble is a Cambridge astro-physicist in search of a unified field theory. Following the sudden death of his father, he returns to his middle England home and his difficult and demanding mother, where he soon realises that his search for unity must include his own chaotic home life.

Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 8 November 2001:

After the huge success of Humble Boy, there seems little doubt that Charlotte Jones is a name the theatre-going public will look out for. On paper the themes of astrophysics, bee-keeping, matriachal dominances and parental incompetence would seem to tax any audience’s concentration. In fact, the hilarity with which John Caird treats the material make Charlotte Jones a contender for the Alan Aykbourn successor, but with a little more sophistication than the former playwright has achieved in recent years. Simon Rusell Beale like all members of the cast, gives a superb performance as the astrophyscist son trying to come to terms with the death of his father. Felix’s social graces (not to mention his dress sense) are diametrically opposed to his academic achievement. Diana Rigg is in her element as the mother/Queen Bee. The direction is superb ensuring that she never quite oversteps the mark into caricature. After the interval the audience is treated to a lunch party scene which in so many other plays has been written with clumsiness in the anticipation of a huge row. The argument which follows hold the dramatist art of tragi/comedy in perfect balance, and with John Caird’s direction ensuring that the audience is weeping with laughter while sobbing at the predicament. All the actors perform brilliantly, moving deflty in the undergrowth that is designer Tim Hatley set. A word is also worth mentioning about the sound as the metaphor of the bees buzzing around, not only from Zoe Martlew’s cello but the superb antics of individuals bees, which of course we cannot see but whose presence is definitely felt. ...

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