By Joanna Orland
Austentatious is one of London’s most talked about improv shows. The cast which includes Andrew Hunter Murray, Joseph Morpurgo, Rachel Parris, Cariad Lloyd, Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Graham Dickson, and Charlotte Gittins, are renowned for improvising hour-long comedy plays in the style of a long lost Jane Austen novel. Originally known by their troupe name The Milk Monitors, the Austentatious show format has been such a huge success, it has taken over their creative identity as an improv team.
Loose Lips sat down with ‘playful’ cast members Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Rachel Parris, Charlotte Gittins, and Graham Dickson to discuss the origins of Austentatious, why cross-century parody is the most fun, what each of them uniquely brings to the Austentatious table, and what could have been if only John Hughes instead of Jane Austen had influenced their improv.