In the 1980s, the TV sitcom Hi-de-Hi, set in a 1960s holiday camp run by yellow coats with all its behind the scene shenanigans, was riding high in the popularity charts. But nearly 20 years before, writer Joe Orton wrote his black comedy on the same subject, The Erpingham Camp.
It is this richly comic text that’s dripping with treacly darkness that Fringe regulars, Welsh amateur theatre company Louche Theatre, brings to Greenside this year.
‘50s hits from Buddy Holly herald Orton’s farce that relishes exposing mayhem behind apparent order. Hard hearted empire loving megalomaniac Margaret Erpingham plays a game of Pin Tail on the Donkey on a map of Britain to achieve her ambition to build more and more holiday camps, even if the unspoilt is spoilt in the process. When the hapless Riley, energetically played by Hillary Nunn, steps in to the vacant shoes of Entertainment Manager, chaos, that quickly tips in to real anarchy, ensues among the not so happy campers.
In front of a painted board with peeling yellow wall paper sits Margaret’s magnificently mad cardboard desk from scenic artist Jim Vale, complete with portrait of her imaginary companion, Winston Churchill.
The enthusiastic cast is completely on board in their crazy wigs, yellow coats and a bit of cross dressing with Sean Byrne as a fetchingly pregnant Eileen and Catherine Deering wearing the role of the law abiding Lou like a pair of bespoke shoes. Nat Jackley lookalike Brian Swaddling as Ted the Tory and Darren O’Connell as Kenny dressed as Tarzan of the Jungle playing the Last Post on a kazoo encapsulate the play’s eventual mayhem and director Harry Durnall dons the mantle of the less than pious Padre to the monastery born at the eleventh hour. But among these stalwarts, Paula Gallagher absolutely shines as Jessie Mason, the Camp’s resident nymphomaniac.
Louche Theatre is an ambitious company that well and truly lives up to their name with this latest production that they perform with cheery, if at times a little stilted, bravado.
The Erpingham Camp is an ideal Fringe show - crazy, colourful and fun.
15-20 August 2016 at 14.55