Dinosaur World Live - Review

Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, London

***

Written and co-directed by Derek Bond

Co-directed by Laura Cubitt

London has always been a paradise for little dinosaur lovers, its museums filled with exciting skeletal exhibits of these mysterious, extinct beasts. The 50-minute-long, award-winning Dinosaur World Live, currently running at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre offers a more immersive and exciting experience, as giant and highly realistic dinosaur puppets thump onto the stage. The gasps of pure excitement from the youngest members of the crowd were unmistakable.

On stage, we first meet Miranda (Lizzie Burder), a goofy and adorable explorer whose parents discovered a dinosaur island near Argentina. While the plot is rather simple, and perhaps could have been written in a more rounded and memorable way, it also allows the main focus to remain on the beautiful, fully puppeteer-operated dinosaurs, including a Triceratops, Giraffatitan, Microraptor, Segnosaurus and even a giant flesh-eating Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The exceptional puppets are the creation of Max Humphries. His detailed designs — including less commonly depicted dinosaurs with bushy feathers — along with some of Miranda’s science-based insights, gently enrich children’s knowledge about these prehistoric creatures without turning the experience into a dry museum lecture.

As the show is recommended for children aged three and above (and probably won’t be as interesting to those already entering their teenage years), directors Derek Bond and Laura Cubitt introduce the dinosaurs on a gradual and thoughtful scare scale. So by the time the full-sized, terrifying T-Rex siezes the stage, empowered by intense lighting, the children feel brave enough to enjoy the adrenaline rush as they shoo the beast away.

The show is highly interactive, with Miranda inviting little helpers from the audience to assist her with fun tasks involving various dinosaurs. My four-year-old, like many other children, perhaps felt a little disappointed at not being chosen and not getting to see the dinosaurs up close, but the production tries to make up for this with a brief — perhaps too brief — meet-and-greet session at the end of the show, when row after row is invited close to the stage to see a baby T-Rex named Tamora, who mainly ‘sniffs’ around the stage.

After the show, those who have paid for the VIP package can meet Miranda and the cutest dinosaur in the production, the baby Triceratops Beatrice, operated by a puppeteer. This includes a longer, more direct interaction with Miranda, during which children can pet baby Beatrice and take photos with her — an experience my little one thoroughly enjoyed. However, as the show is relatively short and supposedly interactive, it seems that at least the somewhat underwhelming meet-and-greet session could be longer, more accessible and more interactive, away from an “extra” VIP package.

That being said, my 4-year old had a fun time! 

Runs until 6 September, then on tour

Reviewed by Florit Shoihet

Photo credit: Piers Allardyce