Clarence Brown's 'Charley's Aunt': love with a laugh

Matthew Bassett, Jonathan Visser and Michael Moreno, from left, play in the Clarence Brown Theatre production of "Charley's Aunt."

Matthew Bassett, Jonathan Visser and Michael Moreno, from left, play in the Clarence Brown Theatre production of "Charley's Aunt."

Some love, much laughter and a man disguised as a woman are part of the Clarence Brown Theatre production of the old-time, longtime comedy "Charley's Aunt."

Director Kate Buckley says the farce, which first played in London in 1892, is not just hilarious. It's a good-natured, joyful tale of how people cope with unreasonable, confusing and often comical circumstances.

"Charley's Aunt" has staying power. The play has been produced on Broadway and became a 1941 movie starring deadpan comic Jack Benny as the "aunt." "Charley's Aunt" has nine film versions, has been translated in a variety of languages and even has a Danish musical version.

"It's great fun," says Buckley.

The Clarence Brown production is Feb. 18-March 7.

Buckley wanted to direct "Charley's Aunt" as part of the University of Tennessee Theater's 2009-10 season. The version she saw in the 1980s in Dayton, Ohio, left her with fond memories.

"I found myself laughing through the whole show," says Buckley, also a UT assistant theater professor. "The laughter was the reason that it stuck in my mind for all those years."

When Clarence Brown Producing Artistic Director Calvin MacLean asked Buckley what play she might like to work on this season, she remembered "Charley's Aunt."

The Clarence Brown production is set in England's Edwardian era of 1910. That's a beautiful time for costumes, Buckley said. It's also a period fitting for a plot element required in "Charley's Aunt" - young women had to be accompanied by a female chaperone in the presence of young men.

The plot centers around two young men trying to be with the girls they love. Oxford University students Charley Wykeham and Jack Chensey are in love with Amy Spettigue and Kitty Verdun. The women are leaving soon so the men invite them to lunch. There's no problem with propriety; Charley's aunt is arriving from Brazil and will chaperone.

But when the aunt doesn't show, the men are in a dilemma and a panic. So they pressure another student, Fancourt Babberly (third-year master of fine arts student Michael Moreno) to dress in woman's garb and pose as Charley's Aunt Donna Lucia.

UT third-year MFA student Matthew Bassett plays Charley; theater graduate student Jonathan Visser is Jack. Third-year MFA acting students Amelia Mathews and Morganne Davies play the parts of Amy and Kitty.

The boys' plot and Babberly's impersonation actually work - until Charley's real aunt shows up.

"It's about love, and it's about people trying to overcome obstacles put in their way," Buckley says. "We like to see impossible situations come to life. …

"These young men have a very serious objective - their wants are very strong and they keep getting waylaid by circumstances and obstacles and things going awry. And how they cope is really quite funny."

Amy McRary may be reached at 865-342-6437.

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