Charlie On The Spree or Always Merry And Bright

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

This is an old-fashioned farce, with asides and soliloquies. The story is clumsy and feeble. The niece of a retired Major, whose heiress she is to be, has secretly married his nephew, a lieutenant in the Navy, and they come to a country inn for their honey-moon. He is called away on service. The Major also comes and follows him to the inn. The niece and the major meet, she confesses her marriage but does not say to whom she is married, and being asked whom her husband is she is afraid to say he has joined his ship. so she idiotically persuades one Charlie captain a ridiculous lout obviously intended to be made up like 'Charlie Chaplin' to pretend to be her husband. Then all sorts of absurd misunderstandings and conversation take place, to be ended by the arrival of the lieutenant when everything is cleared up, and the lieutenant, having in the interval performed a gallant action is forgiven by the major. A night is supposed to pass between the first and second act, but there is no impropriety about the substituted husband, as it is expressly stated in act II that he slept in the bathroom and had not seen his supposed wife since supper the night before. The lieutenant, being on service would naturally be in uniform, but I do not think it is a case for interference, because he is not a ridiculous figure at all and therefore the uniform is not brought into contempt. The dialogue is mostly rather vulgar, but harmless. Recommended for license. G. S. Street.