When two Oxford students require a chaperone at short notice so they can lunch with their sweethearts, the non-arrival of a millionaire aunt sets a trail of mayhem in motion.
The nearest they can get to a stand-in is a (male) student friend, so he togs up in ladies’ garb and the deception begins …
Nick Waring as Lord Fancourt Babberley is reluctantly called upon to be the imposter aunt by the two would-be suitors Charles Wykeham and Jack Chesney, played by Henry Gilbert and Tim Samuels.
The three young actors in Charley’s Aunt at Lincoln’s Theatre Royal excelled – and carried most of the laughs between them.
They supported the more famous faces among the senior cast, which included Duty Free’s Neil Stacy as Jack’s hard-up father, Ben Roberts from The Bill, Sabina Franklyn (the real millionaire widowed aunt) and Glyn Grain.
The humour started right from the off, with some visual gags and slapstick humour from the three young men.
While the students pursue their own loves, Jack’s impoverished father sets his sights on Donna Lucia D’Alvadorez who sadly is, in his/her own words, “no ordinary woman”.
Spurned (quite reasonably) by what he thinks is the real Victorian widow, he predictably finds love with a new arrival into the plot.
The cross-dressing Babberley then attracts another suitor and must keep the deception running long enough to secure evil uncle Stephen Spettigue’s permission for his niece and his ward – Eloise Irving as Amy Spettigue and Isla Carter as Kitty Verdun – to marry the student pals.
Bearing in mind the play was written way back in the 1890s, the humour transferred instantly to the modern audience.
Cliché it might be, with bashful lovers, an evil uncle, broke dad and a mystery missing aunt – but that is the stuff of a good farce and this one is a comedy classic which continues to impress.
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