Erin Harvey, Leslie Caffaro, Nicole English in Austentatious, Walterdale Theatre. Photo by Scott Henderson, Henderson Images

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Can a theatre town get enough Austen? Is there an Austen city limit? The people have spoken: the answer is No.

To help support 12thnight.ca YEG theatre coverage, click here.

Mieko Ouchi directed a cavorting stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice at the Citadel this season. Brian Deedrick directed the Jonathan Dove opera Mansfield Park, as part of NUOVA Vocal Arts summer festival. And now, opening Wednesday at Walterdale, Edmonton’s venerable community theatre, Austentatious takes us behind the scenes as an earnest amateur troupe, the Central Riverdale Amateur Plays (C.R.A.P.) apply themselves, vigorously, to doing their own version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

What could go wrong? Funny you should ask. Austentatious director Barbara Mah calls the Alberta-grown musical (by Calgary-based Joe Slabe, Matt Board, Kate Galvin, Jane Caplow, and Luisa Hinchliff) “Waiting For Guffman meets The Play That Goes Wrong.”

For Mah, the show is a perfect marriage of her two great loves, musical theatre and Jane Austen. We are, after all, talking about someone who goes to Regency balls and sews her own Regency gowns. “Who doesn’t need eight in their closet?” she laughs. “Not even remotely historically accurate!”

Ah, and Austentatious comes with the irresistible added comic potential of stage disasters. “Fall down go boom is always funny,” says Mah, a veteran director of large-scale community productions  like Ragtime and Titanic, “where everyone dies onstage.”

“And fall down go boom while trying to produce a musical?” In these post-pandemic times, it’s meat and drink for Mah. “It’s proven to be hilarious,” she says of rehearsals where the chief difficulty is “trying hard not to crack up. It’s just wrecking the timing.” adjusting the timing while trying not to crack up.

Leslie Caffaro, Nicole English, Connor Foy in Austentatious, Walterdale Theatre. Photo by Scott Henderson, Henderson Images.

As Mah describes, in Austentatious the playwright/ choreographer Emily (Leslie Caffaro), “decides she needs a tap dance in the middle of the play. She sets the production in Amsterdam so she can have a clog dance…. And it goes completely downhill from there.”

Brian Ault and Erin Harvey in Austentatious, Walterdale Theatre. Photo by Scott Henderson, Henderson Images

There’s a pretentious director (Brian Ault): “highly delusional, thinks he knows everything about Austen since he once saw the DVD of Pride and Prejudice.” And there’s “a power-hungry diva,” who didn’t get the plum role of Elizabeth Bennet, “and will do anything to try and get there.” As per the perpetual shortage of male actors in amateur theatre, Mr. Darcy is played by “a guy who just showed up to support his girlfriend.” His day job in I.T. hasn’t entirely prepared him for the 18th century. Another member of the cast, perpetually stoned, is doing his community service in the show.

“It follows the production from the auditions to opening night. And it’s just bananas,” says Mah. “The only sane person is the poor beleaguered stage manager, who’s trying to push people through the technical rehearsal.” There’s actually a song called ‘Tech’. Sets slam, unsuitable props appear. “And opening night is as bad as you think it will be!”

Ballads, a tango, gospel … there’s a variety of musical styles in the seven-actor show, after an opening at the auditions that reminds Mah of A Chorus Line. And a three-piece band plays live (musical director Ruth Wong-Miller of One Foote In The Door Productions).

“I think the audience will be delighted,” says Mah. And, hey, no Austen homework is required.

PREVIEW

Austentatious

Theatre: Walterdale

Written by: Joe Slabe, Matt Board, Kate Galvin, Jane Caplow, and Luisa Hinchliff

Directed by: Barbara Mah, with musical direction by Ruth Wong-Miller

Starring: Leslie Caffaro, Brian Ault, Joyanne Rudiak, Nicole English, Erin Harvey, Connor Foy, Aaron Schaan

Running: Wednesday through July 22

Tickets: walterdaletheatre.com