Fringe Review: DINOSAURS, Thistle Theatre at Greenside @ Riddles Court
Photo credit: The Nightmare Lizards
Mandy Rubeli’s play Dinosaurs is surreal to say the least. When Claire arrives home, she finds a dinosaur has come forward in time and is in her house. To get the dinosaur back to where they’re supposed to be, Claire has to face a major struggle she had in her past so she can move on with the rest of her life.
The premise is interesting. We’re certainly intrigued to find out why the dinosaur is here and how they’re going to get back to their original time period. For a play about time travel, the plot is surprisingly unconvoluted but the show is not paced very well. The opening scene is quite long setting up what’s happened but then the whole thing feels resolved after one relatively quick conversation. The play would also benefit from finding more moments for comedy to help the heavier moments hit harder.
Writer Mandy Rubeli plays Norma the Dinosaur and she is a joy. Her commitment to playing this role completely sincerely is what makes the play work. She has the right amount of dinosaur-esque mannerisms from noises to her physicality, whilst also bringing the perfect amount of humanity to the role.
Hailey Hudson gives a strong performance as Claire. You can see how her pain from the past has hardened her up. She does a great job at gradually lowering her walls and finding some small pieces of light to focus on in her future. Faith Saporito is convincing as Trace, a 12 year old child. A lovely rapport is built slowly between Saporito and Hudson. Completing the cast is Devin Stone as Hayden, who perhaps gets the least development of the quartet. He plays the mediator, the one who tries to keep Claire thinking logically well, but we don’t get much exploration of who he is as an individual, nor his relationship with Claire.
Dinosaurs has an interesting concept and is well performed, but it is never as engaging or hard-hitting as it could be.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Jacob Bush