Nuffield Theatre

Tuesday 9^th to Saturday 13^th September 1975

It's 1908, and Jack Chesney and Charles Wykeham are two close friends and undergraduates at St. Oldes college in Oxford. They are smitten with two young ladies, Kitty Verdun and Amy Spettigue, who are about to be whisked off to Scotland by the tyrannical Stephen Spettigue, who is Kitty's guardian and Amy's uncle. The boys are desperate to spend some time with their sweethearts before they go, but cannot do so without a suitable chaperone present. Then Charles receives a letter from his enormously wealthy aunt, Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez, whom he has never met, announcing her imminent arrival and they see an opportunity to achieve their desires. They invite Kitty and Amy to dinner to meet Charley's Aunt, and cajole their friend, Lord Fancourt Babberley, to keep the old lady occupied so they can spend time alone with the girls. Waiting for the girls arrival, Fancourt tells the boys he is taking part in an amateur theatrical, as an old lady, and they insist on seeing him in his costume. While he is changing, another letter arrives from Charley's Aunt, postponing her visit. Fancourt emerges in his costume just as the boys plans collapse in tatters, that is unless....

Fancourt soon gets more than he bargained for when he lets the boys talk him into the impersonation. He enjoys flirting with the two girls, but soon finds himself having to fight off the amorous intentions of Jack's father and Mr Spettigue. Can Charley's Aunt keep up the pretence? Can she(he) help the boys get together with the girls? When the real Donna Lucia suddenly turns up things start to get really complicated (as if they weren't already!).