Edinburgh Fringe theatre review

Don’t go expecting Jurassic Park on a Fringe theatre budget. Dino Land is a sweetly charming romcom about two workers in a down-at-heel family theme park somewhere in the North of England.

Dylan is the entertainment manager, a conscientious worker but a man who has lost all ambition for a different life over the eight years he has been there. Em is one of the cast members entertaining the children, but aware she doesn’t want to suffer the same fate, easy as it would be to slip into it. 

Many scenes start with them bursting into the changing area after some unseen drama front of house, but the backstage incidents the play focusses on is are more low-key. The pair are gently flirtatious, he too coy to express his feelings, she an expert at winding him up.

Oliver Burkill and Bethany Fox, who also wrote this piece, have a remarkable chemistry. Their chaste affection appears entirely genuine, shown through stolen glances and subtle teasing. Although we occasionally see hilarious glimpses of their broader comic potential, here they play a gentler comedy of manners.

Their embryonic romance goes through the expected ebbs and flows – especially when, as her manager, Dylan has to formally reprimand Em –but the squalls are relatively mild. Other characters appear via conversations on the theme-part radio, a device which is rightfully used sparingly, for when Em takes a mobile call from her dad, the use of so much recording grates.

But it only serves to show how well the actors hold the delicate balance of their muted affections, subtly inveigling themselves into our consciousness until we are rooting for their relationship to take flight.

• Dino Land is on at TheSpace @ Symposium Hall at 3.35pm until Saturday

Review date: 24 Aug 2021
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: TheSpace @ Symposium Hall