Review - The Erpingham Camp
Posted Monday 13th Augustin Festival Features
Jess Barrett reviews Fourth Monkey's adaptation of 'The Erpingham Camp'
Fourth Monkey's production of the Erpingham Camp is an absolute gem on the fringe. It's a production that somehow manages to posses everything that you could want out of a piece of theatre. Everything about this production works.
Think of a holiday camp for the middle class; similar to the one you may see in Dirty Dancing. Add a very stereotypical middle class conservative couple. A young, not-so-middle class couple, expecting their first child. An employee that seeks a dream of making it as an entertainment organiser, the entertainment, a boss treated like a God and what then ensues, is music, destruction and bloodshed.
Every actor on stage new their role exactly; It was beautiful to watch. So many times with a bold piece like this I have seen actors fail to commit 100% to an action they were doing, and as a result the affect of the movement on the audience is lost. The wide-eyed, almost village idiot type Riley was played hilariously by Sean Delaney. Sarah Chasseaud, playing Mason, worked flawlessly to portray an egotistical performer with an image and a reputation, but with "Nymphomaniac like" tendencies and an entirely different reputation to the one she might have originally wanted.
Even when the chaos on stage was at its fullest; the direction, by Hamish Macdougal, ensured that there was never a moment where you were confused about what you should or shouldn't have been focusing on.
I would highly recommend this show as yet another triumph by Fourth Monkey.
STARS: FIVE
Running from 13th-25th August at 16:00. 1hr 15mins long at The Space on Niddry Street