Promoted as a ‘shot-for-shot’ parody of Jurassic Park, some fellow theatregoers were wondering, within reason, quite how a 127-minute motion picture was going to be recreated in ‘only’ seventy-five minutes (indeed, at the performance I attended, it was more like seventy). Alas, to answer that question fully would involve far too many spoilers, suffice to say this production does a reasonable job. Expectations are set at the start with some ‘trailers’ of supposed other productions, including a parody of The Matrix and a very brief encounter – lasting seconds – comprising a literal interpretation of the 1945 movie Brief Encounter. This, then, was going to be silliness on an epic scale.
In that regard, it delivers, gleefully exposing holes in Jurassic Park’s plotline, highlighting inconsistencies and unexplained occurrences. Naturally, it helps if you’ve seen the film, and it helps even more if you are able to recall it. But even assuming you’ve done neither, there’s still much to appreciate as a hard-working cast bring multiple characters, and creatures of the prehistoric reptile kind, to life. Upstage right sits Charlie Ives, with a table full of props. The production’s Foley artist (a craft that is unlikely to be replaced by artificial intelligence any time soon), she did brilliantly to work in real time in what was a briskly-paced show.
I’m not entirely sure, however, how much of the show was truly ‘parody’ and how much of it was essentially a recreation of certain scenes but without the $63 million (in 1993, about $137 million in 2024) budget available to the filmmakers. A remake, as it were, of the waterfall scene is a case in point. But the production keeps things theatrical, so to speak, by use of actual props – and plenty of them. We know a projector is moved out of the way after the first couple of minutes because a voiceover says so while it happens, and it never reappears, thank goodness. And why not twirl an umbrella to represent a helicopter?
The play’s title, a line from the motion picture, is a little misleading – it’s more lighthearted banter than a white knuckle rollercoaster ride. The comic timing is pretty good throughout, and if I looked unamused at certain points during the show, that had more to do with a patron almost incessantly kicking from the row behind than anything else. That, of course, is hardly the production’s fault. An imaginative and slick show that successfully condenses down, in more ways than one, a blockbuster movie into a studio theatre, it’s highly enjoyable stuff.
Review by Chris Omaweng
65 million years ago, dinosaurs ruled the Earth…
30 years ago, a movie about dinosaurs ruled the box office…
Hold On To Your Butts is a must see “shot-for-shot” parody of the greatest dinosaur film of all time. After selling out in New York and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this wildly inventive tour-de-force of comedy, Foley sound and physical theatre transfers to London for a strictly limited run prior to a UK tour.
Created by Recent Cutbacks
Starring Jack Baldwin, Charlie Ives and Laurence Pears
A Cappella Arrangements by Kelsey Didion
Directed by Kirstin McCarthy Parker
Developed with Nick Abeel, Kyle Schaefer and Blair Busbee
Associate Producer FutureHome Productions
HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS
Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, London E8 3DL
10 December 2024 to 4 January 2025
