THIS year is the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s Emma, a milestone marked gleefully by Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel.

Created by comedy ensemble The Milk Monitors, this show hinges on a deceptively simple idea. Audience members are asked to place imaginary titles for a Jane Austen novel in a hat; one is selected at random and immediately turned into an hour-long, immersive, improvised performance in period costume with live cello accompaniment.

Joining Cariad at the Poppleton Live Festival on Thursday night will be Rachel Parris, Joseph Morpurgo, Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Andrew Hunter Murray and Graham Dickson, but first she answers Charles Hutchinson's questions.


What are the key ingredients of a Jane Austen novel, Cariad?

"So many things; the language obviously, the social constraints of the time, manners, witty women, brooding men, romance, so many elements make up her wonderful world. We try to include as many as we can."


What is your favourite Jane Austen novel and why?

"I always recommend Pride & Prejudice as it's such a good gateway book to Jane and her style. It's funny, romantic and still feels relevant today."


What's been the best imaginary Jane Austen title suggested by an audience member?

"We've had so many brilliant ones, it's hard to choose. We regularly get 50 Shades Of Darcy, and Emma 2 is also fairly popular, but I think some of the best are the amazing puns. Sixth Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Shark, Breaking Cad: Meth Comes To Pemberley are all brilliant; Double 0 Darcy was a great title and led to a really hilarious show, so that might win my favourite at the moment."


Title selected, how do you then go about turning it into a hour-long improvised performance?

"We've all worked with improvisation for a long time, so we rehearse, which confuses people, but you have to practise making things up and story telling, and that allows us to do the show. So we start with the title being pulled out of a hat and then... just go from there, making sure it's fun for us and the audience along the way,"


Why is the cello the instrument of choice for your shows?

"We actually alternate between cello and violin, I think both instruments are sympathetic to the time and also sound so romantic. They can underscore dramatic scenes and lift life and energy into sad scenes. Most film scores have strings in them for the very same reason."


Does the audience have further involvement in each show as it progresses?

"No, we simply ask them to write down a title and then sit back and relax. We love doing impro shows where people shout things out and you play games – more in the Whose Line Is It Anyway style? – but for this show, to keep in the style of Jane Austen, it felt more civilised to simply procure a title and then ask our audience to enjoy us doing the work."


What is the “immersive element” of your show?

"We are all in full Regency costume; the girls are in beautiful dresses, the boys look like Darcy and Bingley on a spring stroll. The cello/violin is playing as soon as you walk in; we hand you a beautiful programme written in florid and amusing Regency English on arrival. We want people to feel as if they've entered one of Austen's books."


What would you put into a Jane Austen novel with the title Incense And Insentivity?

"Ah, who knows. You will have to come along and suggest it to us and then we'll find out..."


Or a Hitchcock-Austen cross-breed, North By North Westanger Abbey?

"Another wonderful suggestion! Come along!"


Have you ever heard of Upper Poppleton before now and could you work it into a spoof Jane Austen novel?

"We had not specifically heard of Upper Poppleton before we were booked for the festival, but if the right title comes along, I'm sure it will get due mention."


Is there any other novelist that the company would like to have great sport with?

"We have toyed with Tennessee Williams, Dickens and even Enid Blyton. Who knows, for now we're still discovering Jane's wonderful world and enjoying every minute of it."


Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, Poppleton Live Festival, The Poppleton Centre, Upper Poppleton, York, Thursday at 7.30pm, followed by experimental multi-media comic Joseph Morpurgo's preview of his 2015 solo show at 9pm. "Anticipate the silly, the scary and plenty of second-hand vinyl," he says. Box office: via email to tickets@poppletonlive.co.uk; on 07703 792861; or on the door from 7pm.