Comedy hit Camping returns bigger than before, but still a sexually repressed farce – theatre review

The cast of Silo Theatre's Camping – Chris Parker (left), Brynley Stent, Tom Sainsbury and Kura Forrester. Photo / Andi Crown Photography

REVIEW

When Camping first premiered at the 2016 International Comedy Festival, stars Chris Parker, Tom Sainsbury, Kura Forrester and Brynley Stent were well-known among the local comedy and theatre scenes but were not the household names they have now become.

In the intervening years since the comedy play first debuted, the four are undoubtedly some of our best-known comedians. Collectively they’ve picked up the Fred Award, two Billy Ts, long-term gigs on Shortland Street, Podcast of the Year, a Celebrity Treasure Island win, and all appeared on Taskmaster NZ, alongside sold-out shows they’ve performed in together and separately.

It’ll be one for the historians to track how big a role the sellout smash of the original Camping runs played in their growing success, but the comedy hit has remained so beloved over the last eight years that it was no surprise when Silo Theatre announced it was bringing the cast back together for a bigger, bolder reimagining.

Originally a one-act play done on a shoestring budget, with minimal set design and props budget, writers Parker and Sainsbury and director Sophie Roberts have expanded the show to a two-act play and upped the budget with it. The “Lover’s Cove” bach has been realised in garish, 70s-inspired detail by designer Daniel Williams, complete with a tacky sign made from beach debris, packed liquor cabinet, and board games and CDs scattered about.

The characters and plot remain the same. Parker and Stent return as Francis and Connie Cummings, newlyweds off on their honeymoon, with Connie hoping the two will finally have sex. When they arrive, they find that Fleur and Les Bian (Forrester and Sainsbury), a couple marking their 25th wedding anniversary, are already there in an unfortunate double booking. After stormy weather settles in, the couples then have to figure out how to cohabit together as tensions and suppressed sexuality boils to the surface.

The reason why Camping was such a hit in 2016, and remains so now, is the chemistry between the four stars. Parker, Sainsbury, Forrester and Stent have worked together in several other shows since this, and the closeness in real life translates to a wonderful and unique intimacy on stage. There were multiple times during the opening night performance where it was hard to tell what was scripted and what wasn’t, the rapport between all four of them so quick and seamless that what could have been errors, like a stumble between the two levels of the set, seemed to be quickly sucked into the energy of the show.

The expanded run time gives more room for smaller details for the characters to come through, particularly for Fleur and Les as more about the difficulties in their relationship were dragged to the surface. A new element around men’s rights was brought in between Francis and Les, one of many new moments between the characters that expands where the laughs live.

While the original play had a tight run time, the first act does drag after a while, as the wheels keep spinning without moving much in the storyline. My view may be coloured by having seen – and reviewed – the 2017 return season, but it does feel in parts like the show has been padded out to meet a prescribed runtime.

The second half is a perfect length, with not a wasted second on stage, as one of the show’s many competitions between the couples sees the repression boil to the surface. Those who have seen the show before will know just how ridiculously the show ends, and I shan’t spoil the joy here, but the bigger budget pays off here too, with updated costumes and lighting design, and a flawless choreography that makes full use of the bigger set.

And even when the story lags, the spot-on performances from the four talented stars consistently bring the jokes, even when sighing, shrieking or simply holding up a large chorizo with utter disinterest. Camping is a show I always hoped to see again and never thought I would, and while not all the expansions to the original work, overall this comedy gem remains the perfect antidote to the tensions in the world, a silly, farcical throwback you can’t help but love.

Camping is on at Q Theatre until December 7.