Humble Boy Playwright Charlotte Jones

Humble Boy written by playwright Charlotte Jones attracted the attention of director Richard H. Pegg not only because of its brilliant writing, but it carried him back in time and space. Humble Boy is set in Morton-in-the-Marsh in the Cotswolds of England, on the doorstep of where he grew up. After the significant place grabbed his attention, the themes of Humble Boy buzzed in his head with its dominant female characters, the illusion to the structure of the Beehive and the Queen Bee, the wit-laced humor, revolving around a dysfunctional family, wrapped in fabric woven from Shakespeare’s Hamlet with a manipulative mother, a little boy trapped in the body of a middle aged man.

The London Critics’ Circle awarded Charlotte Jones’ Humble Boy their Best New Play Award in 2001. In 1999 she won the Critic’s Circle most promising new playwright award, and is being acclaimed as one of England’s brightest new playwrights. In her relatively young life, she has written seven stage plays, eight radio plays, two television productions, and two film scripts.

As her fourth play, Humble Boy turned Charlotte into an international playwright sensation. Humble Boy debuted in 2001 at the Royal National Theatre, London receiving the Smith Blackburn Award, and the U.K. People’s Choice New Play Award in 2002. Actually, Charlotte didn’t tell me this. I had to find this out on the Internet, maybe because I didn’t think to ask her about awards, and maybe out of her own sense of humility.

She is a word master of keen perception stretching way beyond her years. Having lived in England all of her life, an interview with Charlotte required the assistance of email. For the time being Charlotte is caught up directing the lives of perhaps her most treasured production, that of raising her two small children. Dan is two and a half and Molly just three months. To say she has her hands full is probably an understatement.

So where did the concept of Humble Boy come from?
“I started thinking about it five years ago. I wanted to write a mother/son relationship. I started with the images in my head of overweight, troubled man in his 30s returning to his childhood home and stumbling around the garden, like a bumblebee. The more I thought about the mother/son relationship, as the characters of Flora and Felix developed, I saw parallels with Hamlet that I decided to embrace so Mercy could become a Polonium figure; George Pye as Claudius, and Rosie, Ophelia. However, I never wanted the Hamlet analogy to swamp the play or to hamper the comedic thrust.”

The imagination of a writer is a most magnificent element to watch develop. Charlotte started with the image of a garden, a beautiful lush English garden where she visualized a beehive.

“I saw Felix as sort of a Bumble Bee perhaps only destined to last the summer. When I was thinking of the Hamlet link, I decided that instead of theology, Felix should be a physicist and I loved the fact that bumble bees aren“t suppose to be able to fly, that they defy physics. It all seemed to link up in my mind.”

Charlotte studied English at Balliol College, Oxford University before studying to be an actress, worked as an actress for six years before turning to writing.

“I was a very impoverished waitress when I started writing. I think I just wanted more control over my life. I was fed up with acting and suddenly I had something I wanted to write about. I’ve been writing for seven years now so it hasn’t happened overnight. I feel like I paid for my dues as a struggling actress for six years, which was all part of my journey towards playwriting.”

She took a year to think about Humble Boy and a year to write and re-write it.

Is she working on another play at the moment? She does indeed have one she is mulling around, but Dan and Molly have other ideas about how she should spend her time besides getting it down on paper.

Does she have a long list of play ideas?
“No, they come one at a time (hopefully). I often start with an image, and then the characters start to develop in my head. I think the themes come as the characters start to coalesce although I try not to analyze it.”

Perhaps this is where her brilliance lies, allowing her characters to unfold before her with their fears, anxieties, concerns, and upside down and inside out attitudes. She lets them dress and address themselves rather than force-feeding themes into their heads. She gets into their hearts and soul. She lets them speak to her, revealing not only their public façade, but the inner thoughts that make them tick, manipulate, defend, and define who they really are. No wonder Humble Boy gleaned so many awards. No wonder her playwright star shines so brightly.

She admires a good many playwrights: Shakespeare, Miller, Chekhov, Brian Friel, “and lots of good modern women” such as Moira Buffini and Bryony Lavery.

She co-wrote The Woman In White with Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel, which will be coming to Broadway early next year. Fortunately, and thanks to Richard Pegg, Humble Boy’s appearance at the John Hand Theatre won’t be the last time we hear about and from Charlotte. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak.

And what does she want the audience to leave with after experiencing Humble Boy?
“I just want them to have been engaged. Entertained as well, I suppose, and perhaps moved too. That would be ideal.”

It certainly worked for me.