Brain-storming for a kids show story must be great fun.

The right subject matter needs to be found, to excite the particular audience you are aiming for, with enough depth to stretch or simplify the content for the outer edges of the age range, while also remembering the importance of engaging the accompanying adults. Then there’s the moral lesson which threads its way through, adding the music and dance that always captivates and working out how to include the all-important audience participation moments but also having enough scripting leeway to wander a little to negotiate the often left-field contributions from the young audience.

Writer/director Aaron Blackledge has hit on a perfect subject area with Dinosaurs. These prehistoric creatures are an absolute fascination for children and adults alike – particularly the 3 to 8 year-olds. So choosing to make a story about dinosaurs, rock music and volcanoes is sure to be a win.

The premise is that DinoLand is overheating, and the only way it can be stopped is if all of the volcanoes erupt at once to release the pressure.

Enter Dinoroar, ‘the best dinosaur rock band there is’. They are trying to find the right song to create the perfect vibrations and frequencies to trigger off this chain reaction to save them from an extinction-level event. They try to ‘Hit (the volcanoes) with their best shot’ but discover this is not the right song for the job.

Lauren Simpkins is an engaging and likeable Cera, the science loving Triceratops who sings and plays the keyboard. She explains the dilemma faced by the inhabitants of Dinoland and introduces the rest of the band: Spike, the Stegosaurus (Patrick Barnes) rocking on Guitar, Snarl the sneaky Velociraptor (Caryl Illana) on Bass and Crash, the not so fierce and very sleepy T-Rex on Drums (Jonny Ogg).

After an argument ensues about the way their own composition should go, Snarl is frustrated that the others are not listening to her and concocts a plan to divert their attention by hiding their instruments so she can work on her rap verse and perform the song solo and save DinoLand all on her own.

With the contextual and emotional scene set, the friends begin their journey back to unification with the aid of some classic 80s covers, culminating in a catchy original by Michael John Stebbings.

The Gryphon Theatre space lends itself well to this production which flows pretty well using an un-cluttered stage with minimal set pieces of a tar pit, a dance floor and a volcano. The band area is set against the back wall and this and the sound quality lessens its impact as an integral part of the story. Also there could be more dynamic contrast both in sound and lighting effects to help illuminate the dire situation Dinoland is in.

The actors, in their cleverly made and colourful dino masks by Jonathan Kingston-Smith, portray their individual characters with enthusiasm and deftly handle the offerings and interjections from the audience. A particularly strong and poignant moment is the duet by Cera and Snarl of an adaptation of ‘When I’m gone’.

The glorious thing about theatre is you can bring together species of dinosaur, cavemen and 21^st century technology that never would have been side by side and I don’t get any sense from this young audience that this line up of dinosaurs, with close friendships between the herbivores and carnivores, is anything unusual. As my 5 year-old says, “It’s a show to learn kindness and science.”

So get ‘Footloose’ and ‘Walk the Dinosaur 500 miles’, remember to listen and work with each other, and get ready to boogie with ‘Boom Boom Akalaka Laka Boom’. 

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