“Charley’s Aunt”

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 47, 23 February 1940, Page 10

“Charley’s Aunt”

FARCICAL COMEDY REVIVED Brandon Thomas’s farcical comedy, “■Charley’s Aunt,” revived by the Celebrity Comedy Company, will be presented at the Opera House next Wednesday. It is redolent of the class of entertainment favoured in the late Victorian era; but the Celebrity Comedy Company’s presentation is delightfully 4 ‘ in the tense. ’ ’ “Charley’s Aunt” takes place in the shades of Oxford University. Of the students of the one house, Jack Chesney has fallen in love with Kitty Verdun, and his friend, Charley Wykeham, with Amy Spettigue. Both young women are about to leave for Scotland, and the young men are desperate to see them before their departure. Wykeham receives a letter to say that his wealthy aunt, Donna Lucia d ’Alvadorez, an English woman who has married a Brazilian, is coming to Oxford to pay her nephew a visit. The boys riiake this an excuse for inviting the girls to their rooms for tea. But the aunt from Brazil does not arrive on schedule, and, as the girls will not stay without a chaperon, they retire to do some shopping. Tho young men in despair then persuade Lord Fancourt-Babberley, who is prone to amateur theatricals, to im personate the aunt, and so assist them in their love affairs. Babberley is enjoying the impersonation immensely and making the most of it, till Chesuey’s father, Sir Frank, and Amy Spottigue’s guardian appear on the scene. These otherwise respectable gentlemen, hearing that Doftna Lucia is fabulously wealthy, approach her in such a way that the pursuit becomes an hilarious love chase through quadrangle and garden, each old gentleman trying to outdo the other. Matters are brought to a crisis when the real Donna Lucia appears. However, it all ends happily. Don Nicol, who plays Lord FancourtBabberley, throws plenty of vigour into his role and has succeeded in amusing metropolitan audiences with his facial expressions. Seats may be reserved at Collinson and Cunninghame