Last Fringe, I saw Austentatious twice in two days, so I jumped at the chance to see it again this year. This is Austentatious’ tenth year at the Fringe and has sold out at least five of those years, which is not at all surprising.
The show starts with the clever and hilarious Rachel Parris, the award-winning comedian, introducing us to the concept of the show and how the afternoon will unfold. We are told that what we previously knew about Jane Austen is wrong – instead of just six novels, she wrote several hundred. The audience is then encouraged to name original Jane Austen-inspired titles, from which the cast quickly chooses one- at this show, the novel we were transported into was “Elizabeth Bennett Like Beckham”.
We are quickly introduced to the cast of characters, all award-winning actors, including Charlotte Gittins, Daniel Nils Roberts, Graham Dickson, Lauren Shearing and Parris herself. The actors are all highly experienced improvisers, so the show gets off to a quick start, immediately funny. It’s amazing to watch an ensemble work together so well, come up with such clever lines and manage to share the stage and create a storyline (of some sort). The comedic timing and physical acting skills of the performers add to this to make Austentatious absolutely hilarious.
There is also a musician onstage throughout, who uses his violin to push and build the narrative and humour of the play. At times it seems impossible that all of this is improvised, as it feels so polished.
The production I saw of “Elizabeth Bennett Like Beckham” highlighted how clever the cast members are, though this is truly evident in every performance. In this particular performance, we had references to the Lionesses and Women’s Football World Cup, Pep Guardiola (I did not know who this was) and even an explanation of the offside rule (I have only recently learned about this).
Austentatious is creative and comedic genius at every watch. Its cast is supremely talented, and the actors seem to push each other to their best. They are also clearly committed and passionate – sometimes meaning that the storylines become ridiculous (but therefore even funnier).
Austentatious is always different, always delightful, hilarious and clever, and always worth a watch. I don’t doubt I’ll be back before its Fringe run is over.
Austentatious is on at 1.30pm at McEwan Hall until 13th August (excluding the 8th). Tickets are available here.
Image by the reviewer.