WE chat to the cast of Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel about joshing around in Regency clothes and zhooshing up the romance

How would you describe the show?

Prompted by inspiring suggestions from our esteemed audience, in each show we act out a completely new story in the style of Jane Austen, which we make up as we go along. It has all the hallmarks of our beloved authoress; witty rhetoric, romantic frisson, farcical characters and often a petticoat-stirring love story but beyond that neither you nor I know what the story will be until it unfolds on the stage!

Why did you choose Jane Austen as the author to inspire your shows?

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a smart woman in charge of a quill provides the perfect prose on which to base one's witticisms. Miss Austen's characters and plots are beloved the world over and rightly so; they provide an acute mirror to one's heart and soul and a magnifying glass to the stupidity of others.

Plus, Dickens is just a little drab for our taste.

Do you need to be a fan of Jane Austen to enjoy an Austentatious show?

In truth, not at all! An entirely new novel is created every time, after all, so whether one has perused all or none of Austen’s works, one will be in entirely the same boat. You do need to be a fan of fans, though. A great number are wielded by the ladies to ward off swooning.

Have you ever been unable to perform an audience suggestion?

We have been presented with some challenging ones over the years; we always go with the third title which is picked from the hat; we don't pick and choose, so as to leave the title entirely to chance. However, last month the chosen title was the rather surprising 'My Grandmother Was a Teenage Prostitute'. We went with it, as we always do, as the show proved an excellent tale of a young lady trying in vain to hide her family connections while falling in love with a morally fastidious clergyman. At Crosstentatious last year, the title was 'Harry Potter and the Deathstar of Death', which ended in Lord "Lord" Voldemort and Sir Luke Skywalker duelling at dawn...In almost every case, there is a funny story to be told no matter how unlikely the title we choose! The only times we have ever rejected a title is if we have had the exact same one before (Lord knows we have had copious 50 Shades of Darcys!) or if it is profoundly, astonishingly offensive! Except for those (there have only ever been three in five years!) through thick and thin, we perform that third title, and have therefore done such works as 'Magic Mike at Pemberley', 'Palindrome Party' and 'Placards and Ostriches'. We enjoy a challenge!

Austentatious comes to the Arts Centre on November 11. To book go to swindontheatres.co.uk or call 01793 524481.