Witty Promiscuity With Penny Ashton and Jane Austin

“The one-woman musical-of-sorts, [Promise And Promiscuity], which New Zealander Penny Ashton says was co-written by her and Jane Austen (as we approach the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death), the often hilarious Promise and Promiscuity plays like a staging of a long-lost Austen novel in which almost every character is a fabulous, toffee-nosed twit,” DM Bradley writes for the Adelaide Review.

“Much witty fun is had with several songs. One is a pirate love ballad set to the tune of Greensleeves and another proves to be a wonderfully ghastly mash-up of Beethoven and Bon Jovi.

“Certain spectators ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ as Ashton work[s] no less than 33 quotes from Austen novels into the show, but such high cultural material is slotted in beside more than a little spiritedly rude stuff about fingering pianofortes and the like.

“A capital evening’s entertainment (as one of Ashton’s personae might have said), this devilishly clever and spiffingly enjoyable offering is such a jolly lark that you can’t help but think even Jane might have cracked a smile.”

Ashton, 43, is from Auckland.

Original article by DM Bradley, The Adelaide Review, June 19, 2017.