Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel
The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, Friday, February 20

Literary scholars and historians believe Jane Austen only penned six full-length novels and a handful of short unfinished works in her short lifetime.

But touring improv group Austentatious has uncovered 790 more, and are performing hour-long précis of lesser-known works suggested by the audience.

So far the audience-suggested titles, which are drawn out of a basket at the start of the night, have included Incense And Insensibility, Man-Filled Park, Strictly Come Darcy, Northanger Rabbi, Snakes On A Horse Drawn Carriage, Bath To The Future and Fear And Loathing In West Hampshire.

“We do get a little tired of titles written in the style of Pride And Prejudice or Sense And Sensibility,” admits Amy Cooke-Hodgson, who co-founded the improv group with fellow actor Rachel Parris while the pair were touring in Showstopper: The Improvised Musical.

“There’s a lot of titles based around Fifty Shades Of Grey too – we have done that title in various forms.

“We love it when someone writes something like That’s Not Alan – we have to meet Alan, see what character he has, what the people are like in Alan’s world and how he relates to them.”

Another recent show in Salford saw the team build a story around Do Androids Dream Of An Electric Mr Darcy? – which required the creation a robotic version of the Pemberley-based hero.

Unlike other improv shows the title is the only influence the audience has over the longform improvisation.

“I started out in shortform improv, as do most people,” says Cooke-Hodgson, referring to the style made popular by Channel Four’s improv game show Whose Line Is It Anyway?

“The luxury which long form affords is you get more time and space to really develop a character and take them on a journey. It is incredibly satisfying as an actor.”

The flipside is the shows become very disposable, with the sparkling dialogue belonging to the moment, and characters existing purely for the duration of the show– aside from one performance which is now available to buy on DVD.

“There are famous Jane Austen characters that people recognise,” says Cooke-Hodgson, who grew up in Chichester. “Mrs Bennet is very noticeable if she arrives in a story. Each one of us plays a variety of characters, but none are pre-conceived ahead of time. It is whatever the story requires.”

Cooke-Hodgson and Parris alighted on the idea of using Jane Austen as a structure from a desire to do something more theatrical than Showstopper, which saw the audience help a director piece together a brand new piece of musical theatre in the space of an evening.

“Jane Austen is the essence of period drama,” says Cooke-Hodgson. “There are the manners and language which made it attractive.

“The dramas are often romantically driven, which means there is a story with a heart to it, although if a story is heading in another direction we don’t force a romantic plotline. We try as much as possible to keep the language as appropriate as possible and steer clear of anachronisms.

“It’s nice to play in a show where you can get dressed up!”

In terms of preparation and rehearsal the cast spend a lot of time debriefing about previous shows, and flipping through the other unused show titles to see which other ways their improvisation could have gone.

“We are a close-knit team, we are all there to support each other,” says Cooke-Hodgson. “The joy of improv is the mistakes become gifts!”