‘Charley’s Aunt’ was first produced at the Royalty Theatre, London on December 21st, 1892 and was later transferred to the Globe Theatre. The play ran for four years, a record not broken until 1941 by Noel Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit’.

The author, Walter Brandon Thomas (1856 -1914), appeared in the first production as Sir Francis Chesney but in subsequent revivals played the title role. Another member of the cast Nina Boucicault (she played Kitty) was the original Peter in Barrie’s ‘Peter Pan’.

The play was made into a musical, ‘Where’s Charley’, which was very successful in New York but had a poor reception from English audiences. lt has also been made into a film.

Christmas revivals of ‘Charley’s Aunt’ were almost a theatrical ritual until recently and the play has been performed at almost every theatre in the country. At one time it was running simultaneously in 48 theatres in 22 languages, among them Afrikaans, Chinese, Esperanto, Gaelic, Russian and Zulu.

A Victorian farce which will survive translation into Afrikaans and Zulu deserves to be a classic of the theatre!