Charley’s Aunt at the Watermill Theatre – review

As the lights go up on Alex Berry’s warm, colourful set, quirky yet elegant, it’s clear that this is a novel reimagining of Brandon Thomas’s classic farce Charley’s Aunt, first seen in 1892 and now adapted by Rob Madge. Just taking in the pink pillars and arches of the summer garden room, set off by doors covered in red and white striped cloth, brings on a smile. And then you clock the costumes of the Oxford undergraduates (also designed by Berry), the red and pink striped blazer, shorts and socks of the confident Jack Chesney and huge scarlet ribbon bow tie of the rather restless, eponymous Charley, and it’s obvious this is a makeover… and what a joyous makeover it is!

Madge and director Sophie Drake make a great team. Drake’s empathetic direction finds the funny and the feelings of frustration or fear in every situation. First of all, Jonathan Case’s Charley engages audience sympathy as he is egged on by Benjamin Westerby’s bouncy Jack.

The objects of their affection, Mae Munro’s Amy Spettigue and Yasemin Özdemir’s Kitty Verdun, may be dressed in slightly more traditional floral prints, conjuring Jane Austen and Downton Abbey, but they add to the fun with their cleverly calibrated nervous energy.

I have a feeling that Thomas would have appreciated Drake and Madge’s version of his comedy, “celebratory, chaotic and queerer than ever before – unashamedly so,” as Madge declares upfront in their programme note.

It is Max Gill’s triumphant Babbs (originally called Lord Fancourt Babberley, but even then shortened to Babbs by Thomas), who irresistibly ensures that queerness is celebrated. Babbs’ penalty for trying to sneak off with an armful of champagne bottles is to don female attire and impersonate “Charley’s Aunt” from Brazil, who has been much anticipated but sends word she is delayed.

Gill’s Babbs is in their element, especially in a frock, and easily manages not just to convince Amy’s fierce father Spettigue (a scarily frowning Richard Earl) that she is indeed the fabulously wealthy Donna Lucia D’Alvadorez, fresh from Brazil “where the nuts come from” (as the play’s most famous line has it); but that she is just the wealthy widow Spettigue’s waning fortunes suggest he might need to woo…

There is plenty more mayhem to come as the real Donna Lucia finally arrives (played with grace and elegance by Maggie Service), and accompanied by her adopted nephew Eli (a sweetly waif-like Elijah Ferreira). 

You may anticipate a happy ending, but if and how it is achieved is not for me to reveal here. I must urge you, though, to go and see this glorious production to find out.