“Humble Boy,” Ensemble Theatre Company’s present offering at the Alhecama Theatre, is a British comedy with overtones of “Hamlet” and a setting straight out of “Miss Marple.”

It makes for a pungent blend, although at two-and-a-half hours it runs a little long. The setting is a seemingly idyllic country house in England’s Cotswolds, set in an absolutely sumptuous garden. Tal Sanders designed the beautiful scenery, and Albert Alarr provided the smartly paced direction.

The characters are an assortment of appealing British types trying to behave appropriately in the middle of an emotional meltdown. They, like the milieu, are sure to please Anglophiles.

The Hamlet factor involves son Felix Humble, a professor well into his 30s who is still unmarried and floundering, and his mother Flora, a no-nonsense type long since exasperated by her son’s waffling. They are coming to grips with the death of Felix’s father, a scientist by trade and a beekeeper by avocation. Simply put, Felix loved him; Flora didn’t.

Playwright Charlotte Jones has created a clutch of interesting characters and certainly the day after Dad’s funeral has plenty of dramatic potential.

James Calvert is Felix, home for the services and barely coping. Allison Coutts-Jordan is Flora, his imposing mother.

Although in his 30s, Felix is still a boy emotionally, devastated by his father’s death. Flora, a commanding woman “in her prime,” intends to brook no undue emotionalism, from Felix or anyone else. A clash, of course, is inevitable.

This play opened in 2001 in London’s West End and was well received. Subsequently, it enjoyed a successful New York run.
In this production, Ensemble has called up a typical roster of excellent actors. In addition to Coutts-Jordan and Calvert, there are Laurel Lyle, suitably vague as Flora’s ethereal friend Mercy; Leonard Kelly-Young, the mother’s caddish suitor; Sonia Alarr, Felix’s robust ex-girlfriend, who also happens to be the suitor’s daughter, and Rudolph Willrich, as the philosophical Jim the Gardener.

Ensemble Theatre chose this play to open the company’s 26th season - hard to believe it’s been 16 years - and it is very well suited. It’s a dramatic comedy - or a funny drama - and provides a stylish showcase for these polished actors.
“Humble Boy” runs through Oct. 30. A.R. Gurney’s “The Fourth Wall” will be the next Ensemble offer, starting Dec. 2 and running through Jan. 1.

COURTESY PHOTO

Caption: Leonard Kelly-Young plays the hasty suitor of Flora (Allison Coutts-Jordan), whose husband was just buried, in “Humble Boy.”