THEATRE REVIEW: Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular

Shane | 13 May 2015 | Reply

THEATRE REVIEW: Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular
Perth Arena, 17 April, 2015
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

You could cut the excitement with a knife at the Perth Arena as the start time for the first show of the Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular loomed large. Hundreds of kids, all excited and nervous (and many parents as well), damaging Mum & Dad’s credit cards on the merch stand and wondering what would be in store.

When the lights finally dimmed, it was palaeontologist Huxley (played by Andrew Blackman with stagey panache) who acted as MC and prehistoric tour guide, describing a potted history of the age of the most majestic and awe-inspiring creatures to have ever walked the earth: the mighty dinosaurs.

With enormous life-sized models made alarmingly realistic – you can practically see each muscle on the beasts move as they prowl, graze and even attack each other in the ancient landscape built on the arena floor – the story is told via a combination of Huxley’s narration, a constantly evolving set and the puppeteer-driven creatures which appear disturbingly real.

Spanning a period of some 65 million years we see a succession of fascinating terrains and beasts unfold before our eyes: alysaurus and brachiosaurus which are totally believable; the co-evolution of flowers and insects; torosaurus engaged in a fight for power…

It’s not just the kids who are enthralled by the animals – enough to tolerate the intense talky bits and history lessons being presented – and the creators of the show are clever enough to appeal directly to them by even inserting some torosaurus poop into the show, guaranteeing peals of laughter.

When the show-stopping T-Rex – the ultimate predator – arrives, a showdown ensures, much to the delight of the kiddies, even as they jump from shock and awe at the realistic sight of it.

Huxley takes us right up to the ten-and-a-half kilometre wide comet that hit the Gulf Of Mexico and caused the creatures’ extinction, paving the way for the evolution of humanity ourselves, and although these “fierce creatures from a mythical world” are long gone, it bears remembering that they ruled our planet for far longer than we have even been here!