Dates

Production Dates:Thursday, Friday & Saturday 12th -14th May 2005

Summary

This classic evergreen farce, by Brandon Thomas, is set in Oxford during Commemoration week. The imminent visit of Charles Wykeham’s aunt from Brazil (where the nuts come from), Donna Lucia, provides an excuse for Charles and his friend Jack to invite their young ladies, Amy Spettigue and Kitty Verdun, to meet her. When a telegram arrives postponing Donna Lucia’s visit, they persuade their amiable friend Babbs (since they must have a chaperone) to impersonate the aunt.

In the past I have directed many pieces of theatre, mainly at college, but co-directing and producing Dick Turpin, the 2005 February Pantomime, for the Players was a fantastic opportunity and I enjoyed it immensely. This is my first solo direction here, and I feel that it has been a huge learning curve and a great chance being the youngest director in the history of the group.

I would like to thank my producer, Lucy Godwin for the wonderful costumes and Emma Corbally for her assistance; Jane Cooper for front of house, Nigel Gray and David Cooper for the gorgeous set, and especially Bernard Godwin for his huge amount of support and help throughout the rehearsal period, for helping design the set and for being a very cool dude! thank you also to my cast and to everyone on and off the stage who made this play possible.

Not only am I so proud of what my cast, my crew and I have acheived; it has been barrels of fun along the whole way.

Cast Jack Chesney   Aidan Godwin Charles Wykeham   Kester Lindley Lord Fancourt Babberly   David Cooper Brassett   Bernard Godwin Stephen Spettigue   Pat Wilson Colonel Sir Francis Chesney   Nigel Gray Kitty Verdun   Emma Corbally Amy Spettigue   Maire McGuire Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez   Jane Cooper Ela Delahay   Natalie Snelson Production Team Director   Lucy Gray Producer   Lucy Godwin Box Office   Lou and Pat Crosswell Costumes   Lucy Godwin Costume Supplier   Greta Cresswell Design   Bernard Godwin Front of House   Jane Cooper Lighting and Sound   Richard Grogan Sound Equipment   Integrated Circles Ltd Make Up   Rosie Thomson Poster and Programme   Bernard Godwin Prompt   Jen Daly Publicity   Pat Wilson Scenery   David Cooper, Nigel Gray, Ian Jewesbury Stage Manager   Ian Jewesbury Stage Assistant   Paul Hickey Bar Managers   John and Maggie

More Photos (click to enlarge)

About the Play and Author

Brandon Thomas (1856-1914) was born Walter Thomas in Liverpool. He started his career as a journalist but then made money writing and performing in Music Halls. He appeared onstage for the first time as a comedy actor in 1879 and around this time married Marguerite Blanche Leverson.

He was a prominent member of the Hare/Kendall Company and among other things he starred in the 1895 revival of ‘The Rivals’.

It was in 1892 that he wrote what was to be his most famous play ‘Charley’s Aunt’, a play that became so popular that few remember his dozen other plays. A comedy classic for over 110 years. Charley’s Aunt has become a staple both professional and amateur theatres throughout the English speaking world. Such is the quality of the writing and humour, the play has survived and remained just as funny for over a hundred years.

It opened at the Royalty Theatre in 1892 where it ran for 1466 performances and was quickly translated into many languages and until the early 1930s, not a week went by without a performance somewhere in the world. At one time it was running in 48 theatres in 22 languages at the same time (including Chinese, Esperanto, Gaelic, Russian, Zulu and Afrikaans).

This popular farce has also been produced in radio and television formats, has been the basis for a hit Broadway musical and has been made into least ten films. It sprang up as a silent movie in 1915 and again in a 1925 version which featured Sydney Chaplin, brother of Charley Chaplin. In 1930, Charles Ruggles starred in the first talkie version. In 1940, Arthur Askey starred in the leading role in a. spoof entitled “Charley’s Big Hearted Aunt”. In 1941, 20th Century Fox produced the 81-minute film version known in Britain as “Charley’s American Aunt”, in which Jack Benny played Lord Fancourt Babberley, Charley’s aunt, complete with dress, shawl and curls. The play was also re-fashioned into the musical “Where’s Charley?” by George Abbott. The musical ran on Broadway between 1948 and 1950 at the St. James Theatre and has enjoyed many revivals. It featured music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and the hit song “Once in Love with Amy”, sung by Ray Bolger who played Charley Wykeham. In 1952, Ray Bolger repeated his Broadway success with a U.K. musical film version of the Broadway hit. It is said that Thomas wrote Charley’s Aunt in 1892 as a lark in order to further the career of fellow actor and comedian, W.S. Penley, as well as his own. At the time, he was an experienced actor of eleven years and an author of six plays. Clearly, that lark has put him permanently on the theatrical map.

Brandon Thomas, died in 1914. During the First World War the Kaiser remarked that Charley's Aunt was the only British play of which he approved: "The author," he said, "died before the war started, and I have no quarrel with him."