A huge hit in its native Australia, the production brings awesome pre-historic creatures to the stage, from cute baby dinos to teeth gnashing giants. What’s On spoke to director Scott Wright to find out more.

How would you describe the show?

It’s a live animal presentation, much like you might see at a zoo or a wildlife park but we have dinosaurs, from very small babies to some of the largest ever found. We teach the audience aspects of animal husbandry and sometimes we will invite some members of the audience onto the stage to assist us with feeding and caring for our dinosaurs.

Who is the show aimed at?

The show is naturally geared towards children as they love dinosaurs but adults get a real kick out of it too. The show does have some great educational overtones but at the end of the day it is very funny and has a lovely endearing nature to it.

How did you come up with the idea?

It was kind of an accident. I founded a physical and visual theatre company in 1990, and we had been custom making life-like dinosaur puppets for museums around the world and developed some pretty cool ways of presenting them within a museum context. We started doing small outdoor street shows at festivals around Australia, about four years ago, and from there things snowballed. For the UK tour, we have an Australian host and two brilliant puppeteers. We like to keep the show fresh by building new dinosaurs all the time so we keep up to date with recent discoveries and ensuring if people come back they will see something new.

It is described as ‘interactive’ – how do audience members get involved?

Throughout the show we will bring people onto the stage, this is my most favourite part because it is unrehearsed. People’s reactions are very unpredictable so it makes for some wonderful moments. In the past we used to try and invite all the children in the audience to come onto the stage, but as the show has grown in popularity and audience numbers have got much bigger, we now bring some of the dinosaurs out at the end of the show for a meet and greet so that folks have a chance to pat the creatures or take a photo.

Why do you think Dinosaur Zoo has proved so popular?

It’s unique. There is nothing like it in the world. Most people’s experience of dinosaurs is based on inanimate objects in museums or as animated creatures in film or television, so by bringing our dinosaurs onto the stage we come one step closer, realising everybody’s dream of having these awesome creatures alive and well in our modern world.

Dinosaur Zoo will be at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells at noon on Tuesday, October 15 and at 10.30am and 1.30pm on Wednesday, October 16. Tickets from £12.50. Call 01892 530613. It is suitable for children aged three and over.