Description

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An award-winning new play that has been called "a brilliant latter-day variant on Elsinore in an English country garden blitzed by bees" (Sheridan Morley, The Spectator)

All is not well in the Humble hive. Thirty-five-year-old Felix Humble is a Cambridge astrophysicist in search of a unified field theory, but after the sudden death of his father, James, a teacher and amateur beekeeper, he is forced to return to the family home in the English countryside. Once there he and his demanding mother, Flora, a glamorous former showgirl who resents having spent the last thirty years in suburban exile, attempt to reconcile themselves to James's death and to each other, plumbing the depths of their anger as well as their love. The emotional turmoil increases exponentially with the arrival of George, Flora's longtime lover, and his daughter Rosie, Felix's former girlfriend, as Felix is forced to acknowledge that his search for unity must include his own chaotic home life. A play concerned with beekeeping and astrophysics, imbued with heartbreak and wit, larger questions of the universe and smaller questions of family dynamics, Humble Boy has been called "a feast: a serious, moving, cerebral feast" (The Sunday Times).

About the Author

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Charlotte Jones is the author of two other plays, In Flame and Martha, Josie, and the Chinese Elvis. She received the Critics’ Circle Award for Humble Boy. She lives in London, England.

Praise For…

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“The real thing. This is a marvellous play: harsh and forgiving; sad, very sad; funny, very, very funny; learned and intricate but light on its feet; a poem about people, bees, and the galaxy.” —John Peter, The Sunday Times