Austentatious

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Austentatious

Playwright – Music and lyrics by Matt Board and Joe Slabe; Book by Matt Board, Jane Caplow, Kate Galvin, Luisa Hinchliff, and Joe Slabe.

Production Company/Theatre space – Forte Musical Theatre Guild at Beddington Centre.

Length – 2 Acts (2 hours, 30 mins, one intermission)

Genre/s – Musical Spoof

Premise – A community theatre company puts on a musical based on Pride and Prejudice, with many script changes, a missing cast member, battling script interpretations, interpersonal squabbles, and tech challenges.

Why this play? Why now? –  A complete reprieve from thinking about the world (funny t-shirt aside).

Curiosities – For those audience members who aren’t in “the biz”, I wonder if they think this is what theatre and actors are like.

Notable Moment – The ludicrousness of the clog dance number.  

Notable writing – A Chorus Line meets Jane Austen with all of the comic subtlety of Fawlty Towers. The show was written as a collaboration with five theatre artists and first produced under the title AmDram: The Musical in 2005. After that it went on to the Philadelphia Fringe, The NY Musical Theatre Festival, a London premiere in 2009, and subsequent re-mounts by Joe Slabe’s company Forte. As with TC’s The Show That Goes Wrong, this trope of the play within the play going awry is a well-worn path (“path” is a suffix meaning affected by a disease). Community incompetence affects the health of theatre but as a spoof it’s funny. Joe Slabe, Calgary’s pre-eminent award-winning composer, delivers another successful show.

Notable performances – Only good actors can act bad ones (if bad actors imitate bad actors, it’s just sadly ironic). This show is spoilt for comic geniuses with Elinor Holt, Doug McKeag, and Natasch Girgis. Just having one of those actors in your show would be enough, but this triad puts it over top. Jessica Jones, Sarah Irwin, and Ethan Vasquez Taylor hold their own. Eric Wigston was in a more realistic show than the others, but there is no fault with his talent.

Notable design/Production – Fortunately, cheesy community shows don’t need a big budget for quality. There are however a quantity of props, costumes, and set pieces as the play within the play changes location from England to Amsterdam to New York.

Notable direction – Directed by Val Pearson (who has directed and acted in more plays than can be listed in a Postcard Review) brings her 60 years of professional experience and care and, along with Slabe’s musical direction and Greg Pember’s choreography, they deliver a show that’s anything but AmDram.

One reason to see this show – Pure fun.