Charley's Aunt

By Brandon Thomas

"I'm no ordinary woman. . ." Jack is in love with Kitty, Charley with Amy and both need Charley's Aunt to help. But when she doesn't turn up, they coerce their friend and fellow student into posing as the widowed millionaire, so they can confess their feelings to the girls. Things become more complicated when first, Jack's father and then Amy's uncle turn up. Both take a keen interest in Charley's Aunt, "from Brazil - where the nuts come from." One of the most popular comic farces of all time, Charley's Aunt has been loved since its original performances in 1893 and the continuous four year run that followed. The original dialogue is retained in this edition, refreshed with modern stage direction and a new introduction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781291577129

Book preview

Table of Contents

Charley's Aunt

Introduction

Characters

Synopsis of Scenes

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

Charley's Aunt

by

Brandon Thomas

With introduction and modern stage directions

by Murial Carvolth

All rights reserved.

Brandon Thomas' original dialogue remains in the public domain. 

Introduction and stage direction © Murial Carvolth 2013

 This publication may not be reproduced in full or in part, without the prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-291-57712-9

 Dedicated to S, with love.

With thanks to all those who have 

helped bring this play back in print.

I'm no ordinary woman...

Jack is in love with Kitty, Charley with Amy and both need Charley's Aunt to help. But when she doesn't turn up, they coerce their friend and fellow student into posing as the widowed millionaire, so they can confess their feelings to the girls.

Things become more complicated when first, Jack's father and then Amy's uncle turn up. Both take a keen interest in Charley's Aunt, from Brazil - where the nuts come from.

One of the most popular comic farces of all time, Charley's Aunt has been loved since its original performances in 1893 and the continuous four year run that followed.

The original dialogue is retained in this edition, refreshed with modern stage direction and a new introduction.

Introduction

"I hoped to go down to fame as a great actor. If I go at all it will be as the author of Charley's Aunt."

- Obituary of Brandon Thomas, The Times, 20 June 1914

Charley’s Aunt was written close to the height of the British Empire and was set at the heart of the English establishment. The elite of Britain were then, as they are now, educated at Eton College and Oxford University, preparing them for a life spent telling others what to do. Graduates would typically take political or military office in the British Empire and then rule peoples across the world as they saw fit, with the utter conviction they were born to do it.

So, the upper class toffs in the play are familiar English Imperialists. They are extremely privileged, arrogant and more than a little stupid. They firmly believe themselves superior to the lower classes and to other cultures, a characteristic that is very apparent in the play. It seems the world and its inhabitants are theirs to command and nothing is more important than their own romantic or financial interests. The characters are spoilt and juvenile and yet, Charley’s Aunt was one of the most successful plays in history, with an extraordinary first run of 1,466  performances. It continues to be performed on stage to this day and has been remade into several films, spawned a musical and remains one of the most known and loved plays of all time. So the question arises, why did these apparently odious characters prove so popular and enduring?

Part of it must be very simple. Putting a man in a dress is funny, particularly at the time. Making that man a member of the English gentry, a Lord no less, only heightens the effect. The audience could laugh at the ridiculous behaviour of a Lord chasing girls and trying to wriggle out of increasingly absurd predicaments. But there is something more beneath all of the farce and formality; a hint at the benign innocence of the Empire in which people preferred to believe.

Myths were essential to the British Empire. At its peek, Great Britain controlled the lives of 458 million people, covering a quarter of the landmass of the world, yet had a population of less than 40 million itself. The liberal use of military and economic power was important to building and maintaining the Empire, but myth was also essential. People had to believe that the English were born to rule and that they were doing good in the world; behaving impeccably, with fairness, resolve and a stiff upper lip. When small rebellions were ruthlessly put down, the unerring certainty of British rule was made to look inevitable, deterring further disobedience or rebellion. The myth of a right to rule provided cover for the Empire's brutality and frequent mis-rule.

Like those characters in Charley’s Aunt, however poor some of the decisions of the Empire, the myth maintained that their hearts were in the right place. The characters of Charley’s Aunt are kind-hearted people, preoccupied with love. Their scheming is far from Machiavellian and each character, however eccentric, wants to do good and find happiness. They reflect a romantic myth of the British Empire, which generations have found to be seductive. 

It is an incredibly comforting idea. Like kindly parents we get the impression that the elite who rule us are well intentioned. Yes, they may be bumbling buffoons, but they do the right thing in the end and that only makes us more fond of them. What the play does not do, however much we laugh, is ask us to question whether they should be there at all. It is a benign play that wants us to revel in the luxury of our regency theatre seats, forget about any hard times and just enjoy a little silliness.

Perhaps then, this is a surprising play for the author to write. Brandon Thomas himself was not a graduate of the Eton, Oxford nexus. He was the son of a boot seller. At 14 he enlisted in the navy, then apprenticed for a shipbuilder, before learning book keeping which was his principle income for many years. But even this was a relatively privileged beginning. He did receive an education first at a grammar and then a private school. His was a professional living and he also took to journalistic writing. Gradually, working for a few theatre companies, Brandon Thomas established himself as an actor. 

Charley’s Aunt came out of years spent in the theatre, acting and writing. The story itself was developed with a friend and fellow actor, W. S. Penley. Both men played parts during its long opening run. Penley later claimed to have come up with the original idea, and given the detailed stage directions of the original manuscript, it is evident that the final script was at least the result of much rehearsal and refinement. It is also why this edition of the play provides new, light-touch  stage direction, to let the dialogue flow unhindered for the reader.

First performed at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds in February 1892, it was an immediate success.  As a result it moved to the Royalty Theatre, London in December 1892 with Brandon taking a part, before transferring to the Globe Theatre.  The original run lasted for four years, which is not bad for a play that was written as a vehicle for Penley. 

The two actors could have devised a subversive comedy and torn strips off the toffs in the story. But their experience and the subsequent success of the play, shows they had an instinct for what the audience wanted. People were not looking for satire, unsettling the strange top-heavy balancing act the establishment was pulling off. They wanted something that let them peek into the lives of the rich, laugh at them and come away happy, even though they were still in charge. They