It just goes to show what one unchaperoned regency woman can accomplish given sixty minutes and an audience!

Penny Ashton plays not just Elspeth Smalltree (the heroine), but those of seven other characters as well. She does very well differentiating between the different characters, each with their own mannerisms, intents, accents and facial expressions. She also proves her performing ability with her ukulele and dancing skills as well as her improvisation when a “garden party” starts up next door to the theatre.

Elspeth Smalltree, a twenty-two year old spinster, is on the road to disaster as she pens her masterpiece “50 Shades of Argggh”, much to her mother’s mortification. After her mother’s spiel about how having a brain is not becoming for a woman, Elspeth decides that she isn’t bothered by spinsterhood. But then, her mind is easily changed by a ball and an eligible young bachelor.

This naughty musical undoubtedly keeps its promise as being promiscuous. Filled with modern japes, this musical pays homage not just to Jane Austen, with thirty-three quotes lifted from her works and placed throughout the musical, but to a Miss Kimberlaine Kardashian, author of a ladies etiquette rule-book, and a number of modern-day musicians including Britney Spears.

With many feminist remarks, Ashton shows just how discriminating and disempowering the regency period was to women. Elspeth even says at one stage that, by using the pseudonym Wilbur Smyth, she is getting paid twice that of a woman doing the same work. She and her sister lament more than once on the changes that will not take place for another two hundred years.

Despite the heat, Ashton performs wonderfully and appears to completely engage the audience. Despite the obvious parallels with the novel, familiarity with it is by no means necessary as Ashton has made the musical accessible to those who are unfamiliar with Austen’s works.