Jane Austen's Bohemian Rhapsody - Austentatious Review

Austentatious: An Improvised Novel is an hour long improvised play in the style of Jane Austen, and based entirely on audience suggestion. 

I went in not really knowing what to expect, that doesn't really say a lot about what would actually happen, and I was really worried that it was going to be a lot of audience participation and it would get really awkward, or it would rely upon the audience choosing the plot etc. which would never end well. 

However, I was pleasantly surprised. When you walk in you are given a piece of paper, and are asked to think of a typical Jane Austen title, think of something that sounds like it could be Jane Austen. These suggestions are then put into a hat and taken up on stage. The cast will then pick out one of the titles from the hat and the rest of the play would be based around that. 

I was genuinely very impressed. They stayed on stage for the full hour, everything was completely improvised, which I just think is amazing because I would struggle to hold a conversation for an hour and they did a whole play. The characters were clear and well portrayed. I was also very impressed by the amount of knowledge they must have about Austen and the time that she was writing because their language was very similar to Austen's and they obviously had a structure that is typical to a Jane Austen novel.

It was really funny, as well. You could see them trying to make it hard for each other as they went along. Particularly on the night that I watched it there was a running joke of dropping Bohemian Rhapsody lines whenever they could after the phrase "She's just a poor girl from a poor family" was said fairly early on. It got to the point where my friend and I were almost in tears. Genuinely a very funny and talented cast. 

I think the great thing about this company is that you could go and watch their shows over and over again and it would be different every time because the whole thing is entirely based on what is put into the hat. 

I totally recommend it to anyone who just likes comedy, I'm a fan of Jane Austen but you don't have to be, it would be funny without knowing anything about any of her novels. There is no context needed for it to still be funny. Im dragging my mum along next time they are in my area because of how good it actually was. 

You can find more information and austentatiousimpro.com