Theatre / Frode Gjerløw
Review: Dinosaur Park, Wardrobe Theatre
If you know your Triceratops from your Brontosaurus and your Jurassic period from your Cretaceous, you will absolutely love this show. But even if it’s been a while since you saw Jurassic Park, Superbolt Theatre’s Dinosaur Park will still knock your socks off.
In Lyme Regis Community Centre, teenage Jade (Maria Askew), younger brother Noah (Simon Maeder) and embarrassing dad Terry (Frode Gjerløw) are screening their favourite family film, Jurassic Park, as a tribute to their late mum. But when the video goes missing, Noah instigates a re-enactment of the 1993 hit where the family morph into characters – like park creator John Hammond and Dr Ellie – not to mention everything that moves inside the park.
Roll on an hour of rollicking adventure, sweaty high-jinks and wry rip-offs. For fans of the original film, there are some classic moments recreated with laugh-out-loud consequences, like chaos theory explained with a drop of water (taken into the crowd) and the eye of the dinosaurs in 3D.
But this is no slavish retelling: it’s a loving and funny hommage re-imagined to include a patriarchal reading of Jurassic Park, rapped to the tune of Gangsta’s Paradise and a Lex vs Velociraptor video game sequence. Interlaced with the fantasy are scenes relaying the painful truth of the modern family’s life, telling the story of Terry and Maddy’s divorce, her subsequent death, and its after effects. There are a few tears around the auditorium, but ultimately it’s the filmic scenes that have the most pace and conviction in this production.
The glue that binds Superbolt’s show together is some flawless lighting (Ina Berggren) and sound design which takes us deep into the forest, gives us night vision and brings the famed electric fence to life.
Not a moment goes by without this trio showcasing their talents at pacy physical theatre, and they thoroughly deserved the foot stamping at the end of their first night in a very warm Wardrobe Theatre. This is definitely the best dinosaur theatre of the last 65 million years.
Dinosaur Park continues at the Wardrobe Theatre until Saturday, June 18. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/dinosaur-park-the-jurassic-parody
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