To mark the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s death this year BBC Radio 4 will be airing Austentatious, the improv troupe that makes stories in the style of the writer. Currently there are only plans for one show to air in June but we hope there will be more to follow.
Six of the Austentatious cast will be involved with the radio show, Cariad Lloyd, Joseph Morpurgo, Rachel Parris, Andrew Hunter Murray, Daniel Nils Roberts, Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Graham Dickson and Charlotte Gittins.
Two Austentatious shows will be recorded in front of a live audience at the Drill Hall this May, which will be aired in a 30 minute slot on a Sunday afternoon.
The troupe tweeted about the news saying “‘Tis true! Although we don’t understand what a ‘radio’ is…”
Cast member Cariad Lloyd told Chortle: “The nice thing is that we’re going to do it live in our costumes with radio mics… The audience will get a proper Austentatious. With impro, there’s often a temptation to format it [for broadcast]. But we want to capture that feeling of discovery, of being in the room.”
Cariad also shared some predictions over the show format, with more from introductory character and celebrated ‘Janeographer’, Dr Sam Patton.
“But good impro is just people connecting and having good conversations, that’s hopefully still good radio… The handy thing with Austen is that it is so verbal and so much about language. That’s why it should work on radio as well as it does live.”
Austentatious will be returning to the Edinburgh Fringe this August as well as performing in France and Germany this year.
