If ever there were proof needed that the English mindset has shifted in the last century, it’s here as the Orange Tree digs up Edwardian playwright St John Hankin’s 1906 satire of… what exactly?
Initially, ‘The Charity That Began at Home’ seems to be lampooning the Victorian tradition of philanthropy, or at least, those woolly-minded souls who would devote their lives to others without really thinking it through.
Hankin’s play is set within the country home of Lady Denison (Paula Stockbridge), a kindly widow who has fallen under the agreeable spell of one Basil Hylton (Damien Matthews). His humanist teachings have persuaded her to keep the company of the type of awful boors whom no sane person would invite to dinner in a million years.
The results are predictably disastrous, but it’s not very clear how serious Hankin’s mockery really is: ultimately Hylton proves to be a good egg, dissolute houseguest Hugh (Oliver Gomm) is reformed, and Lady D’s selfless daughter Margery (Olivia Morgan) remains sympathetic.
Though often funny, the tone of Auriol Smith’s production shifts between right-wing, left-wing, romantic and cynical without it being quite clear what Hankin is getting at. Philanthropy and, indeed, aristocracy have changed so much in the last century as to render much of the satire obscure.