Presented by Music and Fun
Reviewed 15 February 2020
New to Adelaide Fringe in 2020 is A Dinosaur Safari, advertised as a show with ‘music, fun, dinosaurs and lots of surprises’. Unsurprisingly, my four-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter were champing at the bit to see it and so I went along to their premier, my two experts in tow.
What ensued was a singalong led by Ted and Bindy who both touch a mysterious egg on stage and are transported back to the age of dinosaurs. We know this because the two stage actors tell us, rather than there being any actual change of stage setting. For the next 45 minutes, the two sing songs about dinosaurs including ones about Bindy the Brachiosaurus, Ted the T-rex and a general one called the Dinosaur Stomp. Kids in the audience were encouraged to come down to the front of stage where they clapped and danced along. On the first Saturday of the Fringe, there were about 50 in the audience and most children were of kindy age or younger.
This is a hard one to review because, judging from the reaction of most the kids in the audience, lots of fun was had with the dancing and stomping parts of the show. However, from a jaded reviewer’s perspective, I’d recommend you spend your money elsewhere. The reasons for this are many from the lack of impressive costumes, any actual dinosaur paraphernalia, bland stage props featuring only two screens painted with trees and brown mounds, to the tone-deaf singers on stage. Despite the advertising blurb in the Fringe guide saying it was more than a singalong, it wasn’t. My four-year-old kept asking when the dinosaurs were coming, and it was hard to explain to him that the girl in the cap with horns attached to it and a pin-on tail was the dinosaur. There were also initial problems with the sound equipment that caused many babies to cry and get taken out by their parents.
On the positive side, the venue was air-conditioned, seats comfy and kids got to dance and play. However, for the quality of this production that amounts to roughly the same standard as a playgroup or library singalong, I’d recommend you go elsewhere unless your child is an absolute nut for this type of thing.
Reviewed by Samantha Bond
Twitter: @SamStaceyBond
Rating out of 5: 2.5
Venue: Burnside Community Centre
Season: 15, 22 Feb, 1,7,14 March
Duration: 45 mins
Tickets: $20
Bookings: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/a-dinosaur-safari-af2020
theatre, theater, stage, Adelaide Fringe, children’s show, singing, music, interactive, Burnside Community Centre, Music and Fun,
#ADLfringe
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