"charley's aunt"

Motion picture comedies where someone is forced by circumstances to masquerade as the opposite sex can find their roots in the 1892 play Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas. Well, I suppose one could say it began with Shakespeare, but why quibble? A notable Broadway revival of Charley’s Aunt starred the Oscar- and Tony Award-winning actor/director José Ferrer. In many of these plays and movies, an important element—employed for comic effect—is the panic when the heterosexual protagonist in drag finds himself/herself pursued romantically by an unsuspecting suitor of the same sex. The highly-stylized drag in this case certainly requires a suspension of disbelief.

Chalres Busch

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