In addition to ‘Austentatious’ from 3rd~28th August, and our cross-dressed charity special ‘Crosstentatious’ on 17th, the cast would be thrilled to see you at their other Edinburgh Fringe shows!
N.B. Those of a delicate Regency disposition should be warned: acts may feature modern dress and a hint of ankle.
Solo Comedy
▪ 4.00pm | 2-28 August | Daniel Nils Roberts: The Causeway
▪ 5.00pm | 3-27 August | Charlotte Gittins: Mirror Image
▪ 8.00pm | 2-28 August | Joseph Morpurgo: Hammerhead
▪ 8.10pm | 3-27 August | Graham Dickson: The Narcissist
▪ 8.20pm | 3-28 August | Rachel Parris: Keynote
Improvised Comedy
▪ 12pm | 2-28 August | Aaaand Now For Something Completely Improvised with Daniel Nils Roberts
▪ 3pm | 3-27 August | Bumper Blyton Improvised Adventure with Amy Cooke-Hodgson
▪ 11pm | 2-27 August | The Free Association: Jacuzzi with Graham Dickson
▪ 11pm | 3-5 August | The Glenda J Collective with Cariad Lloyd
▪ 11pm | 21-25 August | Folie à Deux with Andrew Hunter Murray & Charlotte Gittins
We are in fits of excitement, for this month we are to record our very own radio show for the delightful Lord BBC! We are recording on the 5th of the month of May. Sadly, tickets are sold out ~ but you will be able to hear the programme itself on the wireless in June. We only hope you have enough smelling salts with you at the time to contain your joy.
Amongst ourselves, plans gather apace for the Edinburgh Festival. Messrs. Dickson, Morpurgo and Roberts and Dames Parris and Gittins will have solo shows, which you may see in ‘preview’ format beforehand if you are in the Capital.
Or, if you have a spare shilling, you may see Captain Hunter Murray’s last Edinburgh show in the heart of Soho’s hunting grounds. Extra dates have been added and you may purchase a billet here.
Miss Amy Cooke-Hodgson was to be found not only in modern dress, but also on the ‘television’ this month, where she appeared in Little Boy Blue on ITV. Although she has survived the scandal of being seen without a bonnet so far.
Ms. Cariad Lloyd has launched the second series of her ‘pod’ cast, the ardent and delightful GriefCast. You may subscribe to it on iTunes or Acast, and it was recently reviewed on Saturday Review for the Radio Four.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall seize this chance to delightedly announce that Austentatious will very soon be coming to a radio near you! If your proximate receiver is switched to BBC Radio 4 at some as yet TBC point in June. Which of course it should be.
Yes, lovely Auntie Beeb has commissioned us to perform Austentatious on the wireless in recognition of the upcoming bicentenary of dear Jane’s death (18th July 1817, fact fans). We are over the moon about it (the commission, not the death), especially since it will be the first long-form improvised format the BBC have ordered since our good friends The Showstoppers had their own radio run in 2011.
The show will be recorded at the Drill Hall on May 5th, in front of a live audience (which as established alas rules out Jane herself), and will then be polished up and ready for transmission in the summer.
Thrilling as that is, it constitutes just part of what is shaping up to be a very, very busy summer for the group.
In August, we return to our spiritual home of Edinburgh for our 6th(!) Fringe in a row, where we will once again be donning our pelerines and pelisses to take to the stage in that divine supine bovine – the Udderbelly!
Before that, we’ve a smattering of performances across the land, including an appearance at the Cornbury Music Festival alongside our musical heroes Right Said Fred (we fully expect a rendition of ‘I’m Too Sexy For My Chemisette’ played on the harpsichord), and at the Wimpole History Festival, alongside our favourite subject at school: History.
What’s more, we’re somehow finding the time for not one, but two European jaunts to France and Germany. Sacre Bleu! Something in German!
And to top it all off there may well be another very special announcement being made very, very soon. Watch this space, dear readers…
If Pride & Prejudice taught us anything it is that one should not leap to rash conclusions based on a one-sided account. So it is convenient indeed that this week has seen Austentatious approached from two very different perspectives.
First up The Times, who tackle the irrepressible rise of UK improv in an article marking the upcoming launch of the Bristol Improv Theatre, the first venue in the country established to showcase solely unpremeditated dramatic delights.
Our very own Ms Cariad Lloyd articulates the unique dynamic that makes the group tick in this extract from the article:
“Improvising doesn’t feel like work to me. It’s a cliché, I know, but it feels like coming home.” And when it clicks, she says, it’s like nothing else. “I haven’t done many drugs, barely any, but I’d imagine . . . you are all reaching a high together, you are all on stage and thinking the same thing. It’s what you look for in any relationship, isn’t it?”
If that’s one explanation of our unique appeal, quite another is offered up in a brand new book, Marina Cano’s Jane Austen & Performance.
It is flattering indeed to be considered “a good closing example of the eminently performative and theatrical force behind Austen’s stories”, although we do fear the impact of the literary-Inception triggered by our show about Austen being analysed in the same manner as our source material.
Still, we look forward to putting the following pull-quote on our Edinburgh posters:
Through their flawed imitation of Austenian tropes and stories, Austentatious exposes the imitative nature of the Austen phenomenon: the actors frequently quote the screen adaptations—in their frequent inclusion of a final kiss and their use of the soundtrack of Langton’s BBC miniseries in their promotional video. Paraphrasing Butler, Austentatious’s parodic recitation of Austen reveals that performance is to source text not as copy is to original, but rather as copy is to copy.
So is improvising Austen akin to a collective narcotic buzz, or a perspicacious exposition of “the imitative nature of the Austen phenomenon”? We expect it’s a bit of both.
Now before we get cold turkey, we’re off to Caterham tonight, for another hit of purest Jane.