What I liked
The story, the direction, the characters, the actors’ portrayal of them, and the fact that I’ll get to see it again!
What I didn't like
It left me wanting more! This could (should?) be expanded to a two-act play that I’d be dying to see.
My overall impression
Do not miss this show. Dinosaurs is spectacular.
Under the bold and meticulous co-direction of Hannah Cairo and Linnea Gardener, a script containing absurdity and realism in equal measure is brought to life with a beautifully crafted combination of comedy and sincerity.
Dinosaurs has no lulls, but the pace isn’t breakneck either. There are rarely fewer than two things happening on stage, but each moment is so perfectly directed that you’ll always know where to look.
You will immediately fall in love with Allie Rothfield and their character Norma, the show’s titular dinosaur. She is brash and endearing, and creates comedic relief (often wordlessly) that elevates the play’s depiction of trauma rather than distracts from it.
Hailey Hudson is electric onstage as protagonist Claire, with an energy that is both frenetic and grounded. I was impressed by her impactful ability to marry raw emotion with precisely timed wit and sarcasm.
Without taking away from what is definitively Claire’s story, Devin Stone’s portrayal of best-friend Hayden is engaging as he manages to be both an eccentric and level-headed presence on stage.
You might laugh at the ridiculousness of Faith Saporito, a beautiful twenty-something woman, portraying [SPOILER] an angsty tween boy, but you will also lose yourself in her performance and believe every moment of it. Faith brings so much empathy to a hard-to-like character that you can’t help but root for him long before the play asks you to.
Dinosaurs uses its typically-Fringe (read: minimal) set creatively, and additional technical elements are utilized delicately and effectively to produce the world of each scene. The sound design, co-created by Hannah Cairo and Chris Walker, is particularly well done and subtly impactful.
Dinosaurs is billed as a “workshop” (though it’s as fully realized as any HFF show) — go see it now, so later when Mandy Rubeli is accepting the Tony for best original play you can brag that you saw the original production ;)
