Can’t get enough of the Austentatious players? Dying to know what we’re all up to?
Well, it’s your lucky day – here’s all the latest activity from our magnificent eight:
Miss Amy Cooke-Hodgson has been wearing a boiler suit and wrangling zombies for a new comedy film – Z-Hab (out very soon), and in the mean time she guest appears in Off the Top, an improvised cabaret show, alongside Jason Kravits off-Broadway this month.
Mr Andrew Hunter Murray can be seen weekly in the latest series of satirical juggernaut The Mash Report on BBC 2, and is preparing to leap into action on tour with fact-toting gallants No Such Thing As A Fish.
Our dear Lady Cariad Lloyd continues her series of melancholy and yet surprisingly cheery chats about death with various comedian of note. You can listen to these marvellous and touching talks here.
Miss Charlotte Gittins is working behind the scenes on a major documentary, travelling across Germany, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Russia. Let us hope she avoids Napoleon’s forces on her travels.
Mr Daniel Nils Roberts recently directed, edited and lent his voice to a short documentary about universal languages for BBC online – “Should We All Write In Chinese?” We’re not sure quite what Jane would think about that idea…
Mr Graham Dickson is developing a brand new solo Edinburgh Fringe show for 2018, whilst jetting off to LA for pilot season (and a healthy dose of improv performances at iO West and UCB). You can catch him in London weekly with the Free Association, who will likewise wend their way to Scotland in August.
Mr Joseph Morpurgo’s acclaimed solo show Hammerhead is embarking on tour around the UK in May and June, and if you are stuck in our smoggy capital it will also return to the Soho Theatre for a week-long residency.
Miss Rachel Parris is currently spreading satire like wildfire, in The Mash Report, and she will be touring the land in Spring with her solo comedy venture, Keynote, for which tickets are available now!
Miss Lloyd continues producing her fine-quality ‘Griefcast’, a podcast both serious and cheering about death, grieving, and the Great Beyond. It has been heartily recommended by both The Guardian and Times, and may be found at this address.
Miss Gittins is touring, with her armonica, her unparalleled collection of dramatic characters, and a phrasebook, on a grand route which shall take in Poland, the Confederation of the Rhine, and even the great unknown, Australia. To any foreign brigands reading: she is armed and dangerous.
Miss Parris continues to perform her musical witticisms onstage, and details of her performances may be found here. Furthermore, her show from 2016, Best Laid Plans (based on a poem by Mr Robert Burns) is available to be seen here. We recommend it heartily. Finally, she continues to delight audiences (alongside Mr Murray) in the televised delights of The Mash Report.
Miss Cooke-Hodgson‘s latest show, Bumper Blyton, a marvellous show which imagines life in that impossible future time, the 1950s, and the scrapes unattended children get into, will be beginning a monthly London residency at London’s Canal Cafe in October. Tickets may be found here.
“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort”
EMMA
After a delightful month in the festive crumpled geography of Edinburgh we are indeed returned home for some (dare we say) well-earned rest.
We performed twenty-five of Jane’s lost works over our time in the Scottish capital, and their titles and subject matter were increasingly unexpected and unique! There was ‘Belfast Pubs I Have Known’ – a lurid tale of drinking and culture clashes in Northern Ireland, with some decidedly regrettable accents. ‘Prude & Incredulous’ subjected that day’s audience to the unforgettable sight of Mr Joseph Morpurgo clad in nothing more than a top hat (artfully positioned), and the run was topped off with ‘Jane Austen’s Love Island’, which saw blushing couples competing round the campfire. Jane was truly a visionary. And if the top hat incident was anything to go by, she will have wished she couldn’t envision quite as much as she did.
And so, wearied and flushed, we stumbled back down south. But our respite shall not last long. For we are soon to embark on a tour to every corner of our pleasant English land. From Leeds to Swindon, from Bath to Buxton – our landau shall bear us from borough to borough, as we bring the forgotten scribings of Jane to the public once again. Every date can be found here.
What’s more, we shall shortly perform in the suitably swanky surroundings of Kensington Palace, no less! Jane would be proud indeed.
So forgive us if we make the most of our brief break, sip tea and read books by the hearth, for soon we will be leaping into literary action once again!
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