Camping. Two nights. Two couples. One bed in one cabin in Lovers’ Cove. What could possibly go wrong? Or right? Or half sideways, upside-down and backwards?
Chris Parker, Tom Sainsbury, Kura Forrester and Brynley Stent have updated their 2017 comedy smash, Camping, bringing us a raunchier, rowdier two hours of gauche garishness, guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat, laughing til your guts are bursting.
We meet the Cummingses, Francis (Chris Parker) and his virgin bride Connie (Brynley Stent), fresh from their wedding (which Francis planned himself – with lots of horses), in a Jeep, driving to their romantic honeymoon cottage, somewhere on the South Island. She’s looking forward to eliminating the word virgin from her personal description, while Francis seems to be looking forward to everything but.
Meanwhile middle-aged Fleur (Kura Forrester) and Les Bian (Tom Sainsbury) are busy checking into the very same honeymoon cottage. He’s hoping to inject a little fire into their 25-year old marriage, as she has the horrific realisation that the place has no TV and she’s gonna miss Love Island, and Marriage at First Sight – NZ, Aus and UK versions! Oh no!
Then the Cummingses turn up and they all realise the cottage has been double booked. And a storm is brewing, then raging. And there’s no cellphone coverage. They’re stuck. They’ll cope. But who gets the bed?
Gosh! That all sounds rather mundane. Fuggettaboutit! This ain’t about plot. This ain’t about exploring the depths of the human soul. Or saving humanity from itself. Except it is. At least for these four disgruntled, unknowingly desperate souls, rapt in their delusions, repressing their true desires. And those desires… well… don’t bring the kids or your maiden auntie along for this one!!!
The ensemble cast have collectively wrought a comedy so bawdy and boundary trouncing, expanding the pratfall to previously unimagined heights, and reworking standard tropes to previously unimagined lows – it’s both a work of art and what my dear old Mum used to call pure filth! I loved every minute!
While there is no ‘star’ of this show – all four cast members get equal time unveiling, exposing and expressing, Chris Parker put me in mind of the young Jim Carrey. There is a fearless, no-holds-barred quality to his uninhibited, shameless physicality that is almost shocking, most definitely jaw-dropping. And he is at his finest playing against Tom Sainsbury’s ‘straight man’. Kura Forrester’s Fleur, a peri-menopausal mother of five, might be the only normal member of the cast, but then again – have you ever met a peri-menopausal mother of five who is normal??? I think Brynley Stent may have the toughest role here, playing the innocent virgin in the madhouse, but she holds her own and manages to thrive in the end.
Sophie Roberts directs this piece of chaos, holding it all together – yet I can’t help wondering if she’s using a horse-whip to keep this crew in line. Possibly two, as there are unexpected things unfolding no matter where your eye lands.
Camping is playing at Q Theatre through 7 December. While some sessions are sold out, you can still book tickets HERE. If you could use a couple of hours non-stop yucks, you can’t do better than going Camping!
Veronica McLaughlin