Reviewed by Gemma Ingham
I took my 5-year-old daughter to see Dinosaur World at the Sheffield Lyceum yesterday (21 August 2017). She’s not a huge fan of dinosaurs as she declares them ‘being for boys’ despite my insistence that dinosaurs can be liked by any sex and any age.
Dinosaur World is recommended for ages 3 and up and lasts around an hour. The atmosphere was set by typical rainforest and insect sounds being played. When the show starts we’re introduced to our host Miranda, an explorer who was brought as a baby to the island where dinosaurs exist. Miranda guides us through her world of dinosaurs in an age appropriate way. There’s a bit of comedy for the grown-ups, a bit of silliness for the younger kids, fact giving for the older kids and a boat load of audience participation.
The dinosaurs themselves are breath-taking. From an adult point of view, the effort that goes into choreographing extremely lifelike movements and personalities of the creatures is astounding. The puppeteers seem to almost dance, and in the case of the T-Rex there are 4 puppeteers (that I could see) all working in unison to create a cohesive performance. The dinosaurs were never still whether they were wriggling around, cleaning themselves or blinking.
As good as the show was I do have a couple (for me) very negative points.
Audience participation is vital to this production and for each dinosaur that featured, children were invited to put their hands up to be chosen to go on stage to interact. Disappointingly all the children chosen on each separate occasion were boys. While I’m sure this was unintentional, it did irritate me a bit, especially given the conversation I had had with my daughter just that morning about dinosaurs not being just for boys.
At the end of the show we were told the performers would be out front with two of the dinosaurs for the children to meet. The entire audience (this theatre has over 1000 seats I believe) of excited children scrambled outside to the front of the theatre to wait. After 5 minutes an usher shouted everyone back in to say the dinosaurs were actually in the bar area. This area is quite small and certainly is not suited to a crowd of this size. A lot of pushing, shoving and general unpleasantness ensued while everyone jostled to get anywhere near the dinosaurs. After about 10 minutes stood in the throng we neared the front only to have the performers with one of the dinosaurs decide they were going to push through the crowd to go outside to the front of the theatre after all. Cue a lot of upset kids and frustrated parents that were so near the front but now having to queue all over again.
I feel this was incredibly badly organized and our relatively good experience ended on a negative. I would recommend Dinosaur World, but I would advise to beware of the chaos created by meeting the dinosaurs at the end.
Rating: 3/5
Tickets cost from £14 to £16.50 (booking fees may apply).
Dinosaur World is at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield from 21-23 August 2017, for more information or to book tickets visit www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk or call the box office on 0114 249 6000.
Lyceum Theatre, Norfolk St, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 1DA | 0114 249 6000
