CHARLEY'S AUNT. To 18 September.

Exeter

CHARLEY'S AUNT
by Brandon Thomas

Northcott Theatre To 18 September 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 18 September 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 35min Two intervals

TICKETS: 01392 493493
www.northcott-theatre.co.uk
Review: Hazel Brown 26 August

Timeless Victorian frolic that is still hugely amusingThis timeless Victorian frolic is well served by all the theatrical components drawn together for this production inventive sets suggest the Victorian period (trompe l'oeil frontcloth photo of the eponymous aunt, behind it 5-arched suggestions of an undergraduate's messy room, college garden then dining-hall) without being over fussy, the acting is truly comic, and the whole nutty confection is hugely amusing.

Two young Oxford undergraduates, Jack and Charley, have fallen in love and, faced with their amours' imminent departure for the country, they invite the girls to tea at their College in order to declare their intentions. The imminent arrival of Charley's rich Aunt from Brazil will provide the necessary chaperone.

Ben Turner plays the inventive fixer of the pair of chums with spivvy' charm, while Laurence Spellman is a gloriously goofy romantic Charley. When the girls arrive at the College, but the Aunt doesn't, the young men dragoon their chum Lord Fancourt Babberley (Babs') into playing her. Edward Bennett's comic tour de force as the Aunt never slips into camp humour. He establishes Babs' character from the start and the young man never disappears completely when he plays an elderly woman, adding greatly to the fun.

Each act ends with a freeze frame of the action and the popping of a flash, nicely setting up the family' portrait at the end of the play. The whole thing is interspersed with wonderful bits of business, a glorious Keystone Cops chase through the five doors of the set, the boys and the men raising their hats to one another in the same way in successive scenes and a fiasco of a tea party.

The girls are given little to do, but Jasmine Hyde squeezes every ounce of pert teasing out of Kitty, while Katharine Burford's close solicitude for the false Aunt creates even more amusement and, naturally, delights Babs. Anny Tobin , the real aunt, keeps the deception going after her arrival and her ward, Ela, is a perceptive conspirator. Peter Harding is all debonair charm as Jack's dad and makes a good foil for Mike Burnside's parvenu Spettigue, as they compete for the aunt's hand in marriage in this amusing theatrical delight.

Jack Chesney: Ben Turner
Brassett: Martin Wimbush
Charley Wykeham: Laurence Spellman
Lord Fancourt Babberley: Edward Bennett
Kitty Verdun: Jasmine Hyde
Amy Spettigue: Katharine Burford
Colonel Sir Francis Chesney: Peter Harding
Stephen Spettigue: Mike Burnside
Donna LuciaD'Alvadorez: Anny Tobin
Ela Delahay: Celia Meiras

Director: Richard Beecham
Designer/ Costume: Matthew Wright
Lighting: Robin Carter
Musical Director: Paul McClure
Fight director: Kate Waters

2004-09-06 11:56:06