A real regency treat
Austentatious is a show featuring some of the country’s best improv performers and it’s on its way to Bath. Ted o’neill reports...
fANS of TV improvisation shows like ‘Fast and Loose’ and ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway’ will be excited to know that a theatrical improvisation troupe with a difference is shortly to hit Bath.
Before Bridgerton there was Austentatious – the regency comedy romp, stuffed with dukes, ladies, and romantic entanglements aplenty.
Multi-award-winning improvised comedy troupe Austentatious are set to wash up at Komedia on October 20.
Austentatious is an improvised comedy play starring a cast of what is described as ‘the country’s quickest comic performers’.
Every single show, the cast conjures up a new ‘lost’ Jane Austen novel based on nothing more than a title suggested by the audience.
The show comes fresh from multiple sellout runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, residencies in London’s West End and at Leicester Square Theatre and a BBC Radio 4 Christmas special.
Now Austentatious will be appearing at theatres across the country to entertain and astonish audiences in equal measure. No two shows are ever the same, with previous ‘lost’ masterpieces including ‘Crazy Rich Georgians’, ‘Double 0 Darcy’ & ‘Game of Scones’.
Performed in period costume with live musical accompaniment, this is a Regency treat guaranteed to delight Austen novices and diehard fans alike.
The team said: “We are beyond excited and fanning ourselves profusely to be setting off on our very own grand tour, and after such a long period of limited society we can simply not partake in another of Mr Collins’ quiz nights, we cannot wait to finally see our dear friends around the country and laugh, swoon and revel in their most delightful and dashing company!”
The rotating cast is made up of a host of acclaimed comedy Talent:
■ Amy Cooke-hodgson is a versatile actress, who has performed in venues across the UK in a variety of roles, both comedic and straight. Recent stage credits include the Queen in the UK première of lost Cole Porter musical Jubilee; a nine-month run as the barmaid in Opera Up Close’s Olivier Award-winning La Bohème; Betty in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!; Kim in Personals; Ida in Honk! and Catherine in Proof. An experienced improviser, her comedy career includes performances with Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, improvised hip-hop band Abandoman and The Oxford Imps.
■ Andrew Hunter Murray writes comedy for BBC Two’s QI and for Private Eye magazine. He is one of the stars of BBC Two’s No Such Thing as the News and two-time Chortle Award-winning podcast No Such Thing as a Fish, and he hosts the critically acclaimed Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast. His début solo show Round One was a sell-out at the Edinburgh Fringe. He also writes comedy scripts, principally and inexplicably for Norwegians.
■ Cariad Lloyd has appeared in her own pilot, The Cariad Show, for BBC Three and can be seen in BBC Three’s sitcom Crims. She has also appeared in Give Out Girls, Cardinal Burns, Bafta-nominated DNN, Siblings, Crackanory, Badults, Toast of London and Inside No.9. For Radio 4, she has featured in The Now Show, The Cariad Radio Show, Newsjack, and The Guns of Adam Riches.
■ Charlotte Gittins has survived numerous 50-hour shows. Less sleep-deprived performances include guest appearances in Norway’s Almost Ibsen: An Improvised Tragedy, Suki Webster’s Guest Speaker, Literary Death Match, This is Your Trial, Monkey Toast: The Improvised Chat Show, Marcus Brigstocke’s Unavailable For Comment and Ross Noble’s Evening of Improvisation with Special Guests.
■ Daniel Nils Roberts is a comedian, actor, improviser and film-maker. His first two wildly inventive solo comedy shows gathered rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and were both nominated for ‘Best Comedy’ at Fringe World in Perth, Australia. ■ Graham Dickson trained in New York and London. He is co-founder and artistic director of leading London improv theatre and school The Free Association. He is also one half of improv duo Life is Fantastic with fellow Austentatious cast member Joseph Morpurgo, and performs the improvised spoof film review podcast Coming Soon! on Soap.
■ Joseph Morpurgo was nominated for a Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award for his third solo show, Soothing Sounds for Baby. His other sell-out solo shows – including Hammerhead and Odessa – have also met with widespread critical acclaim.
■ Rachel Parris is an awardwinning musical comedian, actress and improviser. Her songs have been played on BBC Radio 4 and BBC 6 Music, and she has enjoyed three highly successful solo Edinburgh runs. Rachel was named the Independent’s ‘One To Watch 2014’ and was nominated for a Chortle award.
Tickets are on sale now from www.austentatiousimpro. com/