EdFringe Review: Motorhome Marilyn

There’s considerably more bite to Ben Weatherill’s ‘Motorhome Marilyn’ than its blurb suggests. Yes, Michelle Collins is an ageing Vegas Marilyn Monroe impersonator/tribute act, and yes does have an obsessive relationship with her idol. However, she’s no crumbling relic, tired maybe, but she hasn’t given up hope altogether.

In this, Collins makes an ideal choice for the part, her trailer park Marilyn devotee, vulnerable in the same way as a Scorpion. These are boots in the world that could crush her, but watch out for the sting. It’s unsurprising, of course, given the part was written for her, based on her real-life encounter with a non-fictional Motorhome Marilyn.

There’s no denying, however, that her fictional counterpart’s story – told in rich but tightly scripted episodes to Bobby, her pet reticulated python – is dominated by disappointment.

Her present situation isn’t ideal, but she has her Marilyn collection, her “shrine on wheels”, and presumably still makes some sort of living from getting – or rather keeping in character.

“…Collins makes an ideal choice for the part, her trailer park Marilyn devotee vulnerable in the same way as a Scorpion.”

The play opens with a taste of her venom, demonstrated in the aftermath of a Captain America impersonator spitting on her on The Strip. What follows is a stinging short story in itself, one which echoes down the play, finding echoes in darker parts of her past.

From there, we dive into a potted history of her youth, peppered with toxic men who promised the world and delivered anything but. In the present, she keeps herself to herself, denying romance in case it destabilises her situation.

However, Weatherill holds out one last shining hope for Marilyn, just in time for the police to start asking questions about the man who brought her to the States decades earlier: a man who vanished. Placed in an impossible position, she must choose between the chance of a lifetime and the chance of a lifetime in jail.

It’s a strong plot, if not all that surprising, and offers plenty for Michelle Collins to sink her chops into. Denise is a memorable creation: likeable, scary, vulnerable and possessed of a dog-eared charisma.

Her soulful rendition of ‘River of No Return’ is just one standout moment. It’s also a moment of calm before the storm as Denise’s story barrels towards its climax with increasing velocity.

When it arrives, it’s precisely what you should have expected from the start, and ‘Motorhome Marilyn’ is all the more satisfactory for it.