Carry on Camping (2026)

Leaky Brain are: Joe Dryden, Drayson Goldfinch, Shansel Dryden and Paul Dryden.

After Christmas, I was pretty lost and depressed. The approach of my 48th Birthday and a huge lack of personal achievement had combined to make 2026 a year I wasn’t especially looking forward to. Despite planning a new batch of short stories for various national competitions and a novel for Kingsbrook, I was getting a bit despondent about the prospect of spending so much of my time in the house. Living at home AND working from home can be a bit like a cosmic prison that you never quite escape from: great on the good days but fairly horrific on the bad ones.

Thanks to my wife and a good friend, I was dragged to a local audition for the stage version of the 1969 comedy film ‘Carry on Camping’, and it turned out to be the highlight of my year. I met a group of insanely talented comedy performers and was fortunate enough to land the role of ‘Sid Boggle’ in the production. We played to packed houses over three nights at the Birhcington Centre between 4th and 6th June. We got a standing ovation on the final night, roars of laughter throughout all three shows and some incredible feedback from the people who were kind enough to come out and see us. I also made some incredible friends along the way.

There’s something difficult to describe about a theatre company family, from the point of auditioning and getting a part through all the weeks and months of rehearsals to that indescribable day when you all pile into the theatre to start technical and dress run-throughs. I guess the best way to describe it would be to say that it’s a group of friends you meet all at once, and with whom you form incredibly close friendships simply due to the frequency of those meetings and the proximity of the space you’re occupying. I’m a particularly isolated and anxious performer until I actually get onto the stage, so the fact that I actually managed to bond with these folks speaks volumes about how welcoming and accommodating they were of my various methods of coping with the stress. Also, the backstage crew were the best I’ve ever worked with…and considering that I’m nearly always in the way, that’s really saying something.

If you came out to see the show, then thank you so much for the support. If you didn’t get the opportunity to do so and you live in or around Thanet, then do look out for Leaky Brain’s next production, ‘Frankenstein’, as it’s sure to be another amazing success!

Photo Credits: Cody Woodward, Drayson Goldfinch 2026.