1 week Ago By Ethan Sills
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.
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