Punch/Volume 147/Issue 3817/At the Play
"My Aunt."
Should the Telephone be Used except under Medical Advice?
| Mrs. Martingale | Miss Lottie Venne. |
| Dr. Sweette | Mr. Ernest Hendrie |
Really, the only question to ask oneself of this adaptation from the French is "Is it funny enough?" With so much being offered by the newsboy outside the Vaudeville that is not at all funny, it would be pleasant to find inside the doors a little relief from the world.
I will give the authors the benefit of any doubt I may have felt now and then, and say that My Aunt serves its purpose. In places it made us all laugh a good deal, and I don't think we were prepared to be easily amused although (for a reason which still escapes me) there was a sudden burst of clapping when Aubrey Braxton announced that he had received an "ultimatum" from Suzanne. The latter part of the Second Act is particularly well worked up, and one remark of Aubrey's to Leslie Tarbolton brought down the house. ("You are the sort of man who would go to call on a sick friend… and eat his grapes.") The Third Act is terribly padded with things which are not really funny, but it gives us an opportunity of seeing a little more of Miss Lottie Venne, to whom the authors had not previously been generous. (I love Miss Venne's voice and I love her manner of waving her arms in the air. It was delightful to see and listen to her again.)
For the best parts of the first two Acts, then; for Miss Lottie Venne's voice; above all, for Mr. A. W. Baskcomb's face, My Aunt is worth while. As Aubrey Braxton Mr. Baskcomb—the never-to-be-forgotten Slightly of so many Christmasses—goes through all the many troubles of a hero of farce with his own inimitable air of hopeless resignation. I hope that his efforts will not be unrewarded, and that the management will find that, without rivalling the success of that other aunt, Charley's, they will yet for some time be able to play to good "business as usual."