Awful Auntie play tells a captivating children's story in Brighton

Effectively it's one long chase from start to finish '“ and the children are entranced.
Richard James in Awful Auntie. Picture by Mark DouetRichard James in Awful Auntie. Picture by Mark Douet
Richard James in Awful Auntie. Picture by Mark Douet

Richard James is playing the butler in David Walliams’ Awful Auntie (Brighton Theatre Royal, June 6-9), and he is loving every moment.

“We started rehearsals in August last year, and we have just had our 230th performance. And every one of them has been different!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We are under no illusions. It is David Walliams who is getting the audiences in. He is incredibly popular and he has a great knack of appealing to children but also to their parents and even to their grandparents. He has been compared to Roald Dahl, and I don’t know. There is a darkness there, and it is always the children that win the day, with the adults being shown up as silly or foolish or just evil. It is great fun.

“I don’t think audiences who came to see us last September and then saw us now would see any big changes, but I do think we are a lot more relaxed in the roles, a lot more relaxed with the whole thing.”

When Stella sets off to visit London in 1933 with her parents, Lord and Lady Saxby, she has no idea that her life is in danger. Waking up three months later, only her Aunt Alberta can tell Stella what has happened. But not everything Alberta tells her turns out to be true and Stella quickly discovers that she’s in for the fight of her life…

Richard is playing the butler whose job is essentially to come on and do something silly.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I am playing an ancient buffoon, basically someone who is so old that he has forgotten why he is there.

“We get two different audiences – either schools matinees when the cast can be faced with around a thousand youngsters in front of them or evening performances, which are much more family affairs.

“People talk about children’s difficulty these days in responding to live entertainment after hours spent staring at a screen. But if anyone is going to fiddle with their phones during the show, it’s generally a teacher or a parent.”

“It is perhaps one or two people every few days,” Richard adds. “But it is never the children. They are too engrossed in the show!”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page

3 Follow us on Twitter

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

Be part of it.