The first of three opportunities to see Austentatious at the Savoy Theatre in December in a hilariously scandalous affair indeed
“We’ll buff them in the vestry”
Spreading festive cheer all month long at the Savoy, Austentatious’s Christmas season got off with a bang (ooh vicar) with the saucily inclined Carry On Follow That Carriage. As ever, trying to describe the experience of watching a lost Jane Austen come to life in front of you is to be on a hiding to nothing but among the joys here were erotic flipbooks, bible polishing, dogging in Stevenage, the joys of a reverse flicking and – don’t tell PETA – all kinds of avian murder.
And even when you think that there’s no way this surreally random collection of story threads could ever come together, the skills of this improv troupe becomes apparent as a resolution hoves into view as if never in doubt. Cariad Lloyd’s bawdy card-playing sister was a hoot, I loved Amy Cooke-Hodgson’s Mrs Bryce and Graham Dickson’s reactions to Andrew Hunter Murray’s late-blooming physicality were inspired. Honestly, there’s few better ways to spend a Sunday evening.
