Sophie Adnitt reviews Austentatious, the improvised Jane Austen Novel on the first of its dates at London’s Savoy Theatre.
Austentatious
Savoy Theatre
Four stars
Book Now
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an improvised play in possession of a press night must be in want of a review.
As such, there was a great deal of interest when the Savoy Theatre was, for the Sunday night, bestowed upon Austentatious, a company of travelling players who, for the entertainment of the gathered gentry, put on a show, claiming it to be the lost work of the esteemed writer Miss Austen. The play was well received, and the actors very pleasing; there was a great deal of mirth and little to no uncouth behaviour from the audience. It was unfortunate then indeed, that the nefarious wretch Miss Adnitt was invited to attend the proceedings. Miss Adnitt drew great amusement from the piece and spent much of the evening engaging in loud and quite vulgar laughter – most undignified…
In the midst of spending this autumn touring the country, Jane Austen-themed improv Austentatious took to the West End stage for the first of a handful of dates at the Savoy. With Dreamgirls having its standard Sunday night off, Austentatious took over the venue, with their ingenious fold out set that formed their stately home backdrop and Regency-esque costumes. Accompanying them is a duo of musicians in the form of the lightning-quick Oliver Izod and Dylan Townley, who riff on everything from Tequila to Go to Sleep to romantic underscores, and Damian Robertson, who has the unenviable task of improvising the lighting of an entire show as it happens. What follows is ninety minutes of pure hilarity.
The audience is welcomed in with some Regency-era music and singing, and for a slightly worrying moment it looks as if reverence for Austen is going to dampen the general vibe of the evening, since the funniest of comedy shows tend to treat their source material with a gleeful level of disrespect – not so much bashing the work as kicking it down several flights of stairs and setting it on fire.
I needn’t have worried.
We’re introduced to an Austen ‘expert’, who reveals that contrary to popular belief, our Jane wrote something in the region of 900 lost novels – and we’re going to discover one tonight. Encouraged by yelled suggestions from the audience, tonight’s contributions result in Call Me By Mr Darcy’s Name, in which Darcy is a double entry accountant whose arrival at Jones Manor over the summer has everyone aflutter, not least Edward, the Jones’ overdramatic son. In fact, the only person less than impressed by Darcy is his arrogant union man servant Leroy. Anachronisms abound as Curly-Wurlys, tequila shots and ‘sass’ all get a mention in plummy, period drama-worthy tones, making them all the more unexpected.
Of course, that’s the beauty of an improvised show – every performance comprises of a completely different story that nothing can truly prepare you for, but Austentatious are clever and on the ball enough to construct jubilantly quotable scenes off the tops of their heads. Still, some of the best moments are when the fourth wall is thoroughly obliterated; for example, when the performers lead each other off down bizarre paths of narrative, and their clearly bewildered scene partners have no choice but to follow, or when one character declares mid-monologue that he can say whatever he wants, since nobody is listening as he’s being upstaged by two other characters voguing silently in the background. It doesn’t make much sense in context either, but the audience is in hysterics.
Not all the jokes land; some are lost in the laughs and the wonderfully shambolic wedding finale drags on for a little too long when nobody seems quite certain how to draw things to a conclusion. But these issues are small fry amidst a delightfully daft evening that even Jane herself would approve of.
