Brandon Thomas's Humorous Play "Charley's Aunt" and it's Literary and Film Adaptation in Russian

Abstract

Object. To uncover strategies of cultural and ideological reinterpretation. This research paper examines the multifaceted cultural journey of Brandon Thomas's seminal Victorian farce "Charley's Aunt" (1892) into Russian-language literary, theatrical, and cinematic traditions, tracing its adaptations from pre-revolutionary Russia to the late Soviet era. By analyzing the play's transformation across ideological, aesthetic, and socio-political contexts, the study illuminates the mechanisms of cultural translation and the role of adaptation as a tool for negotiating foreign narratives within localized frameworks. Central to the investigation is the Soviet-era film adaptation Zdrávstvuíte, ia vásha tió tia! (Hello, I'm Your Aunt!, 1975), directed by Viktor Titov, which serves as a case study for exploring the interplay between socialist cultural policy, artistic innovation, and the subversive potential of comedy under censorship. 

Methods. Consists of comparative textual analysis and archival research. Findings. Checking effectiveness of methods of cultural adaptation in translation. 

Conclusions. The enduring success and comedic potency of this work stem from its flexible structure, built upon universal archetypes (cross-dressing, social mimicry, absurd predicament), which proved exceptionally adaptable for cultural transplantation. The Russian interpretations, from 19th-century translations to Soviet cinematic versions, demonstrate not mere linguistic translation but a process of deep cultural transposition. The central mechanism of this adaptation has been the replacement of Victorian social codes with relevant local realities: English student traditions and class conventions were substituted by Soviet-era bureaucratic and domestic absurdities, recognizable social types, and linguistic clichés. In the literary sphere (translation by I.I. Rubinshtein), this manifested in the Russification of daily life and speech patterns, aligning the characters with familiar types from the Russian comedic tradition. In cinema, particularly in the film "Tyotya Charleya" ("Charley's Aunt", 1975), the adaptation reached its peak: the plot's framework was preserved but filled with purely Soviet grotesquery, satire on scarcity, petty-bourgeois attitudes, and careerism, realized through the visual and acting styles of Soviet eccentric comedy. Thus, the history of the Russian reception of Charley's Aunt vividly illustrates the dynamics of intercultural comedy. Its lasting resonance is ensured not by literal fidelity to the original but by the adapters' ability to find precise cultural equivalents for the source's comic mechanics. Having passed through the filters of Russian and Soviet sensibilities, Thomas's play became part of the national comedic canon, proving its timeless appeal and the universal adaptability of its farcical core.