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Motorhome Marilyn

 
Rebecca Vines Review by Rebecca Vines 4 Published: 3 Aug 2025 Gilded Balloon Patter House Show Dates: 30 Jul 2025-25 Aug 2025

Michelle Collins seems nervous. She pops out from the auditorium a few minutes before curtain up: she gurns gauchely at those at the front of the queue. They offer a cheery "good luck." "I’m gonna need it!" she replies, without a hint of false modesty, before popping back in again. It reminds me of a charmingly honest television interview with her a few days ago, in which, unstarry and wide-eyed, she seemed more than a little overwhelmed by the Edinburgh behemoth she had created for herself.

Lost dreams, wasted lives, resilience… and just a little touch of psychopathy.

But if she is more anxious than the average performer kicking off this crazy month of endurance, she really needn’t be. The show is a sell-out. Her fans, warm and supportive, are out in force. They don’t know it’s terribly bad form to applaud an actor before they so much as open their mouth, but on this occasion, we’ll forgive them. They are just so delighted to be breathing the same air. An air which is generously loaded with the years of shared memories of Ms Collins pouting, scheming, suffering, and surviving from the magic box in the corner of the room.

As it happens, these pouting, scheming, suffering, survival attributes have served her well in the creation of Denise: the ‘Motorhome Marilyn’ of the title. Based on an original idea of her own, the story follows sixty-something Denise as her paltry world as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator crumbles around her ears. Now living in Las Vegas but raised in Southend, Denise has been through it. Her only true companion is a python named Bobby. She exists in a caravan stuffed with Monroe tat. She hasn’t got much. But the one thing she does have in spades is grit. You can take the girl from Southend, but...

Written by Ben Weatherill, the script serves up a good number of genuinely hilarious lines; and some of the initially extraneous-seeming exposition ends up neatly dovetailing into the final few moments. There is plenty here to tickle die-hard Monroe fans, and just as much to educate those who are less familiar with her story.

Collins herself certainly looks the part and is as perfect a fit for Denise as you would expect from a part written especially for her. Rather more unfortunately, Denise is not a perfect fit for Marilyn. And therein lies much of the sadness of the piece. Denise will never realise much more of the dream than standing over a grate on the Strip, her white skirt whirling in the wind, and worrying whether she’s likely to develop a yeast infection from all that hot air scooting up her nether regions. Even when in character, there is little accent, no breathy register, none of the softness of her idol. She is quite clearly doomed to failure. Deluded even within her delusions. But, ever-optimistic, she clings on. Well, they do say it’s the hope that kills you.

Ms Collins bravely creates a character who is difficult to love and is unafraid of demonstrating the hardness of a woman whose eternal reliance on her own mettle has rendered even a scintilla of vulnerability tantamount to betrayal. This brittle emotional tone allows the darker elements of the piece to bowl merrily on by, and we find ourselves almost complicit in some of her darker doings. This is a much more tangible take on a character who could so easily become cartoonish and infantile, and one that leaves us with a satisfyingly awkward feeling of irresolution as the lights fade down.

Because this is not really a show about Marilyn Monroe. This is a show about lost dreams, wasted lives, resilience… and just a little touch of psychopathy. It is an insightful glimpse into the story that might lie behind a tin front door, of how a little life, of scant account to anyone very much, might be eked out. Ably directed by the always reliable Alexandra Spencer-Jones, there is a good deal of pain that is evocatively intimated rather than explicitly splashed about. And much like the legendary Marilyn herself, not all of the scars are visible.

Amir Nisi

Rebecca Vines

Rebecca is an acclaimed practitioner and lecturer with a renowned global practice; and is the current Drama Chairman for the board of the British and International Federation of Festivals. Rebecca began her writing career as a diarist at The Guardian newspaper, and has been reviewing theatre since 2000. Rebecca trained as a performer with the Actors Company, and has written, directed and produced critically acclaimed and sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe since 2003.

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Michelle Collins makes her Edinburgh Fringe debut in Motorhome Marilyn, a dark comedy by Ben Weatherill. The play follows Denise, an aspiring actress with an obsessive relationship with Marilyn Monroe, hoping to live up to the icon's fame and beauty. In the 1980s, she heads to Hollywood, but as her dreams falter, she is forced to confront the painful truth of unfulfilled aspirations. Inspired by Michelle's real-life encounter with a woman known as Motorhome Marilyn, the play reveals the toll of living in the shadow of an icon, exploring failure, aging, and the heartbreaking cost of unattained dreams.
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