'Hold on to your neck ties, boys. Charley's aunt is here!' Scheming students Charley and Jack must somehow navigate the curmudgeonly Spettigue in order to declare their feelings to love interests Amy and Kitty. The promised arrival of Charley's immensely rich aunt gives them their opportunity - but the course of true love never did run straight or smooth... Mistaken identities, false identities, the discovery of true identities: will love - old and new - triumph through it all? Brandon Thomas's celebrated farce Charley's Aunt, fantastically successful when first performed in 1892, is brought bang up to date in Rob Madge's riotous and glamorous adaptation. It opened at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in 2025, directed by Sophie Drake.

Rob Madge is an actor and playwright whose debut play, My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?), was premiered at the Turbine Theatre, London, in 2021, was a critical and commercial hit at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, and transferred to the West End later that year. My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?) won Best Off-West End Production at the 2022 WhatsOnStage Awards, the Theatre Award at the 2023 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, and was nominated for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play at the Olivier Awards. Rob Madge was joint winner of Best Creative West End Debut at the Stage Debut Awards in 2023. Madge has also adapted Brandon Thomas's farce Charley's Aunt (Watermill Theatre, 2025). Author photo by Matt Nalton Photography