‘Well, that was a bit of fun!’

As I sauntered out of Van Park, I heard about six different people say the above. The audience was dominantly middle aged and older, with few of what my mother would call “young people” to be seen. Well, there was me, and my friend who blew in from Newcastle for the show.

‘A bit of fun’ is a pretty apt summary of the soft rock musical I saw. I think the demographic says a lot about how Van Park is supposed to be consumed. Sometimes, things are just not aimed at you. I’d say this was definitely the case here.

Van Park is the story of a bogan ex rocker (played by John Paul Young) who has washed ashore in a caravan park where he ekes out his days on a diet of beer and bad manners. His young, unsure and girl-shy spawn Curly lives with him and boasts a strong talent that is as yet unexposed to the wider world. His wife, Gypsy Fire, runs the local kiosk and has questionable relations with the local shaman-guru-sex god, who may or may not be the father of Curly.

The narrative is your typical “boy gets girl” arc, which was uninspiring but entertaining enough. The set and lighting were fun and competent and the songs were melodic and pleasing. I quite liked Curly’s song “I wish I were a girl” – it had a catchy little hook and was rather cute.

The rendering of the characters was hit and miss. Some performances were hilarious and reasonably strong – the shaman and Gypsy Fire being the examples that spring to mind. The majority of the others were stilted and unconvincing, or downright irritating (in the case of confusing, wildly annoying and over-acted British tourist) but they weren’t helped by the dialogue – it had a sledgehammer approach that lacked subtlety. But perhaps subtlety wasn’t what they were going for.

I think Van Park was a play that was supposed to evoke nostalgia, and serve up some fun music you could tap your foot to while revelling in some down and dirty Australiana. Unfortunately, that’s not my thing, so I didn’t get much from it. There were too many cock jokes, too many “oh noes! I have an erection!” moments and empty cans of beer rolling around. It felt more like a show I would have seen in a caravan park as “family entertainment” on holidays as a kid.

But you know what? I’m pretty sure my Mum and Dad would have loved it. Different strokes, as they say.

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