Love Jane Austen? Get ready to laugh with Lightbulb Improv

Posted on 26 April, 2022

It’s time to put a giggle into the stiff posture of Pride and Prejudice. A snort into Sense and Sensibility. An echo of laughter into Emma, if you will.

At least, this is what Lightbulb Improv, Canberra’s foremost improv troupe, hope to bring about when they present Under The Bonnet from 19 to 21 May at Canberra Theatre Centre.

Billed as “a lively unscripted comedy inspired by the works of Jane Austen”, fans of Regency-era drama will be rolling in the aisles as the manners and mannerisms of the time are sent up by Lightbulb’s talented troupe of actors with the help of the audience.

Across the course of one hour, the Lightbulk larrakins will create a ‘lost’ Austen novel based on title suggestions from the audience (may I suggest ‘Idiots and Ideosyncracies’ or perhaps just ‘Beatrice‘) and we’re sure that hilarous chaos will ensue.

Did we mention they’ll be performing in full period costume and with live musical accompaniment?

Director Heidi Silberman says that Austen’s dramedies of manners are ripe for (mis)interpretation.

“Austen’s characters and stories have been loved for centuries, the only problem is there aren’t enough of them. I’m looking forward to seeing the actors create new stories that will do Jane proud and have the audience laughing,” she says.

“The women of the group love that Jane Austen wrote of brave, feisty women who know what they want and go after it, and so that’s fun to play as well.”

It should also be noted that, while the audience is invited to suggest titles at the start of the performance, audience members won’t be dragged up onstage.

Feature image: Luke Atchison and Angie Ford of Lightbulb Improv enjoy a delightful piece of cake in rehearsal for Under the Bonnet. Photography: Ian Petersen