Theatre review by Steve Bennett at the Lion & Unicorn, Kentish Town

Perfectly timed a month before the next sequel in the Jurassic Park franchise hits the big screen, this is a decidedly lower-budget version of the original.

Writer-director Jessica Rufey has brought the 1993 blockbuster back by splicing its DNA with some stage-school song and dance numbers, deliberately hammy acting and smart in-jokes – and the result is as entertaining as it is trademark-infringing.

From its Bond-style opening sequence, it's clear the quartet have their work cut out playing all the characters, both human and dinosaur, in this hugely dynamic parody. It's hard to choose favourites but Alice Frankham captures, then exaggerates, Jeff Goldblum's affected stutter perfectly, and Matt Lee-Steer's Dickie 'Welcome to Jurassic Park!' Attenborough is a bumptious joy.

It helps if you're up to speed with the original to get the full impact of this silly spoof and its plethora of knowing gags – but cast's spirited re-creation will bring back even long-dormant memories of the dodgy fences, the presentation explaining the genetic experiment, and the spitty dilophosaurus with their neck frills.

And who doesn't love a camp dinosaur impression? This four cover the range here, the creatures being variously anthropomorphised as a diva who has a catchy line in funk-rap, a gossipy Lancashire housewife, or a lumbering hulk who's strained attempt at singing is a particular delight – one of a generous handful of occasions when the cast reduce the audience to hysterics.

That said there are a few lulls in the humour – but never in the energy – and they occasionally over-indulge a scatalogical or sexual innuendo. But overall they offer more than enough to keep surprisings, with nice touches that come from going beyond a simple scene-by-scene mockery of the original.

These include the 'previously on Jurassic Park' recap that gets us out of the interval, the chase at the end that's more Benny Hill than Steven Spielberg and the dinosaurs' eggs being made by Kinder – one of the consequences of replicating a $63million film on the budget of fringe theatre (at the start the obliteration of the earth's entire dinosaur population in an asteroid strike os covered by a quick flicker of the lights).

Producers Talkwood might just have created a monster here…

• Jurassic Lark runs at the Lion & Unicorn in Kentish Town, North London, until tomorrow, then at Leicester Square Theatre on May 14 and 15.

Review date: 8 May 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett