Dinosaurs will walk tall at Arena

Jul 16 2009 by Lois York, Flintshire Chronicle

Dinosaurs will walk tall at Arena

AFTER 65 million years, the most fearsome creatures to have lived on Earth are back – and are heading for Liverpool.

More than 2.4 million audience members across the continent and almost three million people worldwide have experienced the £10m arena spectacular Walking With Dinosaurs.

And the live show has just embarked on a UK tour, with Liverpool’s Echo Arena lined up for August 19-23.

Based on the award-winning BBC television series of the same name, audiences will see 15 real size dinosaurs come to life, including the three storey tall brachiosaurus, and learn about their journey on Earth through paleontologist Huxley.

Resident director Alli Coyne said: “It’s definitely an arena spectacular. It’s the story of the dinosaurs, their time on Earth.”

Each of the large dinosaurs, or “puppets” as the team call them, are operated by three people– one driver, who sits in a cramped camouflaged compartment below the dinosaur, and two voodoo puppeteers watching from a distance, one operating the head and tail movements, the other controls minor movements such as the mouth, blinking, snorts and roars.

Alli said: “It’s a very technical show. The three have to work as a team which is very hard. Then of course the dinosaurs are really large, they take up a lot of space. It’s all choreographed and timed to music as well. We have had six weeks of rehearsals.”

The show has played 68 venues with 500 performances throughout the US, Canada and Mexico.

But this time around there have been some changes.

Alli said: “The show was based on the TV series Walking With Dinosaurs eight years ago now. They are finding out things about dinosaurs all the time. For example, they thought the brachiosaurus walked with her head more horizontally, but we have since discovered it was more vertically. We are trying to keep up to date with all the evolving information.”

As well as the five suit dinosaurs– three utahraptors, one baby T-rex and one liliensternus– the brave audience will see 10 species of large dinosaurs, including the most notorious of them all the 23ft tall and 42ft long tyrannosaurus rex.

Associate director Cameron Wenn said: “The reaction from the audience is pretty much the same wherever we go. Everybody is blown away.”

To book tickets, priced£20, £30 and £35 call 0844 8000 400.