Humble Boy

Humble Boy is a 2001 English play by Charlotte Jones. The play was presented in association with Matthew Byam Shaw and Anna Mackmin, and was first performed on the Cottesloe stage of the Royal National Theatre on 9 August 2001.

Humble Boy is a play inspired by Hamlet. In an online review, the scope is said that, "Charlotte Jones knows her Stoppard, her Hamlet, her Ayckbourn, and among other things perhaps the fourth book of Virgil's Georgics on the subject of Aristaeus's bees."

Jones draws upon techniques of Tom Stoppard in applying multiple layers of what seems to be random events, people, movement, and philosophies. She "offers a play with inklings of the aforementioned Hamlet, bees, horticulture, theoretical physics (specifically, superstring theory), anosmia, swing music, and the elusiveness as well as the playfulness of language."

Thoughts of playwright Alan Ayckbourn are also apparent in Jones' work. "Set entirely outdoors in the Humbles' garden (Ayckbourn territory), we witness the Humbles' domestic struggle (definitely Ayckbourn here), Felix's confrontation with his past, and his own mental difficulties in maintaining his familial and professional responsibilities."

Felix Humble returns to his family home in the countryside of England after receiving word of the death of his father, James Humble. Once he returns home, he discovers that his mother, Flora Humble, has gotten rid of all of her husband’s belongings including the bees which he kept. The reunion of mother and son was not as pleasant as one would imagine, old animosity is sparked between the two as Flora blames Felix for embarrassing her at James’s funeral by running away when it was Felix’s turn for eulogy. On top of that Felix discovers that Flora intends to marry a man named George Pye, the complete opposite of the intellectual and passionate James.

Throughout the summer the distance between Flora and Felix grows. Flora sends her friend Mercy to befriend Felix and relay information back. Felix can see right through his mother’s devious agenda and finds that the gardener Jim, who is ignored by everyone, is the only one he can confide in.

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