Charley’s Aunt review – a fresh and fun glow-up for Victorian farce

Watermill theatre, Newbury Rob Madge’s colourful reworking of the 1892 comedy makes clever adjustments while retaining the original’s spiritThe frump turns fabulous in this new version of a redoubtable Victorian farce. Renovated with affectionate cheek by Rob Madge, it’s a scrappy but very fun take on the tale of dowager dress-up and scheming lovebirds.Jack (Benjamin Westerby) and Charley (sweetly bird-brained Jonathan Case) want alone time with their beloveds Kitty and Amy (Yasemin Özdemir and Mae Munuo). Even if they evade the girls’ forbidding guardian, decorum demands a chaperone. Charley’s rich aunt doesn’t show, so am-dram fan Babbs is persuaded to impersonate her. Do shenanigans ensue? They certainly do. Continue reading...

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