Sense and Spontaneity

Sense and Spontaneity may very well be the sweetest show at the 2016 Fringe World Festival. With beautiful manners, and lovely costuming this warm hug of an improvised show is overwhelmingly "nice".

Esther Longhurst and Jessica Messenger have an obvious love for the novels of Jane Austen and at the performance I viewed, the real life romance of audience member Isabelle was given an Austen makeover and was presented as a long-lost Jane Austen manuscript.

Miss Longhurst and Miss Messenger have outstanding rapport and have wonderful synchronicity as they improvised the story of a young lady who had spent time as a missionary in the colonies and had returned to the English countryside an old-maid of some twenty and seven. Lots of misunderstandings and a lovely convoluted plot kept the audience entranced and the hour-long show passed very quickly.

The performers played some ten or more roles between them, changing characters with the help of a collection of superbly millinered hats, often sharing characters or switching characters mid scene. Intelligent asides added to the comedy.

Sense and Spontaneity is a lovely show to which you could take your grandmother or twelve-year old, has a lot to say about the power of women and delivers a wonderful time.

Kimberley Shaw