Charley’s Aunt Review
December 8, 2016
photos | Maya Jackson
“Charley’s Aunt” is a critically-acclaimed play which never failed to grab the audience and make us laugh from the moment it began. Stage Management students prepared for months to perform the play for faculty members and classmates.
At the beginning of the play, the audience was transported to London in the 1800s, because of the exquisite props. Jack Chesney and Charley, played by junior Michael Fuhrman and senior Luke Wagner, are two college boys writing to Kitty Verdun and Amy Spettigue, girls they have fallen in love with. The boys write to Charley’s aunt to ask her to chaperone the date where they will ask the girls to marry them.
However, Charley’s aunt is delayed. Lord Fancourt Babberly, both Jack and Charley’s friend played by Ben Adair, also visits. Adair dresses up as Charley’s aunt with the clothes he was going to try out for a play in, and he poses unwillingly as the chaperone for the sake of the proposals.
The play has many twists and turns, including when Jack’s father Colonel Sir Francis Chesney comes to town, and also Stephen Spettigue, Amy’s Uncle and Kitty’s ward. When both Stephen and Francis meet Babberly, Charley’s fake Aunt, they fall in love with “her”. The plot takes another turn when Charley’s real aunt comes to the party.
Casting was spot-on with the personalities of the characters, which made it appealing to the audience. Ben Adair was the highlight of the play, really getting into his character as if he were a woman in the 1800s. “I’m from Brazil, where the nuts comes from” was the kicker quote that sent the audience into a heap of laughter. The play lead perfectly between the end of the act and the intermission, which left us wanting more. Altogether, the cast, crew and director spent numerous hours on the acts, props and costumes, which was evident throughout “Charley’s Aunt.”
