THEATRE REVIEW: Dinosaur World Live - The Floral Pavilion, New Brighton.

From the company nominated for the 2022 Olivier for Best Family Show, this “Jurassic Park”-style feast of puppetry, comedy and eyeing up the audience as potential lunch, is a dream of an experience for most children. (Though not all – one little boy had to be taken outside while wailing in fear...) This performance of “Dinosaur World Live”, produced by Nicoll Entertainment, was at the Floral Pavilion Theatre in New Brighton; and the Assistant Reviewers aged eight, twelve and fourteen also attended.

James Perkins’ set was bare and simple: just a few red, yellow and black signs around the walls to indicate that we are in a zoo on an unknown island. Actor Jessica Aquilina, dressed in a khaki shirt and shorts, bounded onto the stage as the ebullient zookeeper and dinosaur expert Miranda. Following a format that parents are very familiar with, Miranda gave a presentation of some of the dinosaurs in her care, with varying levels of co-operation from her subjects. It’s as if writer Derek Bond (himself a parent) had sat through one too many seal shows at the zoo, or birds of prey displays at the castle, and thought: “If this was applied to dinosaurs…..”

Where the show excels in cleverness is how realistic the end result is. Miranda earnestly sustained her commentary to the parents and children, giving much scientific information along the way, just as if she was dealing with a seal or a hawk or an elephant. And an assortment of dinosaurs were brought out, and treated with the seriousness of living animals. Full points must be awarded to puppet designer Max Humphries, puppet director Laura Cubitt and the ensemble team of puppeteers for pulling this off.

The dinosaur puppets were very detailed and scientifically realistic: even latest paleontological theories that land dinosaurs may have had striped markings on their skins and rudimentary feathers were included. The realism of the movement, and the sounds the creatures made (possibly by the puppeteers holding electronic voice distorters in their mouths) were exceptional. A lot of cuteness was had by using baby dinosaurs, who were small enough to be held by the puppeteers. But where it really got magical was when we could properly appreciate their size. The first time a triceratops – about the size of a smallish elephant – lumbered onto the stage, a ripple of awe went round the theatre, and a cascade of smartphones went up to take illegal photos of it. When the tyrannosaurus rex clumsily pranced onto the stage, it was having to keep its head lowered to avoid hitting the ceiling. Miranda looked very small and vulnerable, waving her special stick at it like a lion tamer to get it to behave. And when the giraffatitan put in an appearance, only the enormous head and neck could be poked around the wings: – we fully believed there was another 24 metres stretching outside the theatre.

Derek Bond, who also directed it, gave every animal – and they were living, breathing animals – a different personality, and a different relationship with Miranda. He had some fun with their behaviour, including some gags directly borrowed from pantomime, and the inevitable stenches and bad breath reactions that real dinosaurs would generate. Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as being as big as a house, was this close to losing control and just storming into the audience to eat everyone. It was wonderful.

The eight-year-old thinks it is the best piece of theatre that he has ever seen, and that everyone involved in making it are geniuses.

Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore
on - 18.4.22