It is easy to imagine a troupe of collegiate players devouring this venerable antique with gusto, wringing maximum fun from the quaint language and manners, as well as the pivotal man-in-a-dress gag, until Brandon Thomas' vintage romantic comedy sparkled like new. Unfortunately, the Forum cast are seasoned professionals, veterans of countless Plautian bedroom farces -- and it shows.
Director William Pullinsi opts for the easy way out, focusing not on Charley's Aunt's high-comedy repartee but on low comedy physicality, with knees-high chases, knees-apart pratfalls, and much knocking off of hats. Larry Wyatt, though a bit long in the tooth to be believed as an Oxford boy, minces, simpers and flounces dutifully as the hapless Fancourt Babberly (whose Aunt speaks in the same gravelly baritone pitch as her impersonator). The young men prove suitably impetuous, the old men suitably pompous, and the young ladies suitably clueless, albeit lovely in Karen Kopischke's yummy costumes.
It's all more Roman comedy than English, but the tired-businessman audiences probably won't mind.
