Review: AUSTENTATIOUS, Vaudeville Theatre
Photo credit: Ed Moore
Yes, we’ve been to Austentatious before and we’ll certainly be going again: it’s a show that is new every time. From its beginnings at the Edinburgh Fringe to the current ongoing Jane Austen improv show with a rotating cast of regulars, this is a journey that shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
The company are currently starting a run of Monday night shows at the Vaudeville Theatre, with their Regency backcloth in front of the set for SIX. They’ve invited some guest stars for their Christmas shows, and when we were in the audience, it was Stephen Mangan who joined the company. As always, after the latest version of a preposterous lecture about Austen, we were invited to call out titles of her missing novels. The suggestion of ‘Four Bennets and a Funeral’ was quickly accepted and we were away.
Regulars will not only enjoy the show but will also marvel at the skill with which ideas are handed back and forth and a storyline developed, with a great deal of assistance from a musician improviser (on violin) and a lighting improviser who helps to create endings and beginnings. All fascinating stuff, but most of us were laughing too much to pay much attention to the mechanics.
Stephen Mangan proved to be an Austentatious natural, working well within the company style, as well as adding a slightly more outlandish approach that proved as enjoyable on stage as in the audience. We were soon reveling in a cast that featured Jonathan and Brian Bennet and their small brothers Derek and Clive, as well as the doomed Miss Parkin, whose funeral took place just before the interval. Thanks to Stephen Mangan, we were also introduced to Miss Felicity Cockblock (pronounced Co-Blow she quickly advised us).
And so it went on, reaching heights of absurdity around repeated grave-digging and much use of hats. The company we saw remained anonymous, with no listing in the foyer or online, but included all the regular female performers: Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Cariad Lloyd, Charlotte Gittins, Lauren Shearing and Rachel Parris. The male performers were Stephen Mangan and Graham Dickson.
The 1hr 50min running time is quite a change from the more usual one hour shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and maybe – just maybe – the show works better in the shorter format. Or perhaps the longer shows should feature two stories? On this occasion, the heights reached in the first half are not quite matched after the interval; although, to be fair, this may have been down to cast illness which led to one performer having to be replaced in the second half.
A fitting way to celebrate the Austen anniversary and a great night out at the theatre.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Chris Abbott
