A Critique of Charley’s Aunt

By: Angela LaRose

After much anticipation, I attended the opening night performance of Brandon Thomas’s

farce, Charley’s Aunt presented by Act 1 in the Division of Performing Arts at DeSales

University. I thoroughly enjoyed the production as a whole, based on several aspects that truly

heightened my theatrical experience. Upon my arrival to the theatre, I felt as though I was

immediately transported to Oxford in 1892. The pre-show music set a light, upbeat and

humorous mood which went along perfectly with the farcical nature of this play, and allowed me

to slip into the world in which I would be a part of for the next few hours. The play itself is

extremely comical, and this production certainly did the text justice.

The actors played a major role in conveying the plot, and I thought they did so in a well-

organized manner. In the opening moments of the play, the playwright does an excellent job of

introducing Jack Chesney and Charley Wykeham and giving a little bit of background

information on their current affairs. The central chain of events is clearly presented in the text,

and the actors in this production clearly executed those actions and events. As the plot thickened,

the actors also did a wonderful job of clearly executing key moments in the plot such as the

crisis, denouement and deus ex machina. The crisis occured when Charley’s character finally

stands up and shouts out that Donna Lucia D’Alvadorez is not truly his aunt. The deus ex

machina occured when Lord Fancourt Babberly reenters in men’s clothing and the denouement

when the real Donna Lucia D’Alvadores reveals herself. This allows the real Donna Lucia to be

with Sir Chesney, Lord Fancourt Babberly to be with Ela and for both Jack and Charley to be

with Kitty and Amy.

 The plot and theme of this play are very closely related. The main thematic idea

throughout the play is mistaken identity, which is very common in a theatrical farce. This creates

conflict throughout the plot for many characters. Lord Fancourt Babberly’s dressing up as

Charley’s aunt creates most of the conflict throughout the play and propels the action forward.

Because of this deceit, characters tend to fall for the wrong person. A prime example of this

would be Sir Francis Chesney and Stephen Spettigue both falling for Donna Lucia, who is really

Lord Fancourt Babberly. Another conflict throughout the play is Jack and Charley’s trying to

keep the true identity of Charley’s aunt concealed once true chaos begins to ensue

I thought that Nick Twardzik as Jack Chesney did a fantastic job portraying the confidant

for Dane Lavery’s character, Charley Wykeham. Michael Covel portrayed his character, Lord

Fancourt Babberly, as a foil to Jack and Charley. Whenever the boys acted seriously, Lord

Fancourt Babberly seemed to play off of their seriousness and make fun, irritating the two boys.

Covel also did a wonderful job of making Lord Fancourt Babberly a source of comic relief. Both

he and Dane McMichael as Brassett did a fantastic job of keeping the mood of the production

light and comical, as well as engaging the audience through comical asides. I found all of the

female roles in the play to be under developed, leaving the actresses with little to work. Kitty and

Amy do not have much background; I found Julianne Schaub and Lara Notarianni’s portrayals of

Amy and Kitty to be rather impressive due to the lackluster nature of their characters. They kept

their characters very light and playful as they are written to be, but also gave them some

substance during more serious moments where the playwright might not have thought the

emotions of their characters would be vital. In that time period, women did not have much of a

say in how their lives were run, but I thought that the actresses gave each of their characters a

sense of independence.
 The costuming of this production created a visual extreme. The extravagant dresses with

eye-catching bright prints, puffed sleeves, full skirts, matching head pieces and parasols all

created an amazing visual extreme for the audience. A man dressed in a very similar get up also

created quite the visual extreme. I found that Amy Best’s designs to be whimsical and perfectly

fit for this production. I did not think that there were any aspects or moments in the production

that could have fallen into the category of spectacle. There was not one specific moment or

aspect of this production that had me in awe.

A British dialect is called for in this play. While using this dialect, the actors were

occasionally difficult to understand. There were a few times when their words were muffled,

they were not annunciating or they were not projecting enough. Some of the words or phrases

that the playwright chose to include in the text are common or relevant in the present day. To

save the audience from some confusion, the director of this production, Wayne S. Turney,

included the definitions of a few choice words and phrases in his director’s note.

I felt as though this production was not well paced. The play has three acts, making it

longer than the standard two act play. With that being said, I wished that the actors would have

kept up the pace of the production a bit more in order to keep it from dragging on. There were

many times where I found myself to be momentarily uninterested and wondering when it was

going to be over. Had the actors kept the pacing up, I would have been kept on my toes from one

moment to the next and that was not always consistent throughout the production.

Because the show had three acts, there was one intermission in between the first and

second act. In order to change scenery, there was a short break between the second and third acts.

This was not a full length intermission; there was a small pause in which the house lights were

brought up, but still dimmed in order to convey to the audience that the members of this
production needed to take a moment to prepare for the final act. The dimming of the lights

informed the audience that although there would be a slight pause, they were not meant to leave.

I found that this acted as a convention between the audience, the people onstage and the people

behind the scenes.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Act 1’s production of Charley’s Aunt. It was incredible to

see my peers in action, and watch them apply techniques to their performances that I am

currently studying as well. I look forward to having many more pleasant experiences in the

DeSales University performing arts program over the next four years.