JURASSIC

Soho Theatre

★★★

“its infectious silliness makes for lots of big laughs”

A misinterpretation of the film ‘Jurassic Park’ sets off a Kafkaesque nightmare of university bureaucracy and conspiracy in Tim Foley’s ‘Jurassic’ at the Soho Theatre. The two-hander pits the stubborn, righteously deluded Dean of the University, ‘Dean’, against the increasingly exasperated academic Jay, driven to derangement by a misunderstanding that is costing him his sanity, as well as his job. There are plenty of fun and silly jokes in this very taut one-act play, but the balance between the far-fetched absurdist concept and genuine critique of elitism and bureaucracy is a tricky one. It can be a challenge to suspend disbelief and feel invested in Jay’s Sisyphean battle to be reinstated in the face of a post-truth campus culture.

Matt Holt’s Dean and Alastair Michael’s Jay are perfect foils for each-other, as their initial conflict – Dean’s belief that the film Jurassic Park is indeed a documentary revealing the existence of dinosaurs- costs Jay his job in the palaeontology department. The university provides an ideal setting for a tale of misinformation and power politics, with funding cuts, a perpetually absent principal, staff feuds and spilled secrets all occurring in the background. The absurd central misunderstanding demands the audience’s commitment to the bit, which we can enthusiastically give – but Dean’s initial delusion is resolved quite quickly, and this leaves space to wonder about the script’s practical corner-cutting. Questions like “Why has there been no mention of an employment tribunal?” and “Can you actually campaign to be chancellor of the university you’ve just been fired from?” plague the mind. But maybe that’s just the bureaucrat in me.

Meanwhile, particular praise must be given to movement director Yandass Ndlovu’s transition scenes, which see Dean and Jay devolve and spar with each other as prehistoric creatures. These scenes free up the play to jump forward in time effortlessly, as well as harkening back to the good old days when creatures could squawk, scratch and lunge at each other without all the red tape. Anna Short and Patch Middleton’s sound design bring a purposefully minimal, quotidian office setting to life in tense and climatic moments, and there is some great work with onstage lighting when the rivals’ feud becomes more akin to a police interrogation.

Piers Black’s slick direction means that the tug of war between Dean and Jay never grows slack. But to create forward propulsion while the characters remain locked in this stubborn power dynamic, the play introduces higher and higher stakes that occasionally deviate in tone from the play’s absurd concept. There’s a murder, which remains darkly comic but feels a little crowbarred in. Subsequently, a reveal about Jay’s own misdeeds, which have been subtly alluded to with his frequenting of student bars, do make it quite difficult to maintain the sympathy for his character that has swept the audience along on his futile journey. As the play reaches its climax, any catharsis we might feel on his behalf is marred slightly, and although the ending comes satisfying full-circle, it does stretch the possibilities of play’s universe a bit too far to feel entirely earned.

Foley’s play clearly relishes in its absurd concept, and its infectious silliness makes for lots of big laughs. Still, I think there is more satirical material to mine from this recognisable tale of faculty politics, without the introduction of some tonal inconsistencies and the completely off-the-rails plot developments, however gratifying they may be.

JURASSIC

Soho Theatre

Reviewed on 20th November 2025

by Emily Lipscombe

Photography by Chris Payne

JURASSIC

Catching Comets

Pleasance Theatre

Reviewed – 14th September 2021

★★★★

“a slick, subversive, and soulful experience, that brings a perfect blend of comedy and poignancy to the end of the world”

The end of the world has understandably been pretty prevalent subject matter in a lot of film, TV, and theatre lately, and given how much we seem to be experiencing the actual end of days in the real world, seeing it happen on stages and screens can feel laborious. Thankfully, Catching Comets cuts through to deliver an apocalypse story that’s fun, intimate, and earnest.

Catching Comets follows Toby (Alastair Michael), an astronomer who discovers a comet that’s on a collision course with Earth. When the authorities don’t take him seriously, he takes matters into his own hands by morphing into the kind of B-movie action hero that he’s come to idolise from the films he’s watched. It’s intercut with a parallel plotline in which Toby’s blossoming romance with a dancer named Forest Green forces him to confront his own insecurities, and the two threads begin to converge as the end of the world and the end of the relationship coalesce into the same earth-shattering catastrophe.

Piers Black’s script is stellar once the apocalypse plot is in full swing. Hearing Toby narrate his actions as the B-movie hero as if they’re written in a screenplay – “a close up shot of my face” – keeps this half of the play’s tongue firmly in its cheek, and maintains a rollercoaster momentum. It also juxtaposes beautifully with the more poetic description in the other half of the play, where Toby frequently describes minute details about his feelings for Forest Green that give it a deep realness that lets the audience empathise with Toby – so much so that one audience member couldn’t help but audibly ‘aww’ at many of these moments.

Alastair Michael helped this further through an excellent connection to the audience, and an absolute masterclass performance. The duality between the nervous, introverted Toby who’s terrified of being hurt by Forest Green, and the stoic, confident Toby who’s transformed into a knock-off Rambo is fantastic to watch, particularly as these are often snap changes between the two sides. His physicality in the action scenes is also hugely impressive, where – thanks to Chi-San Howard’s movement direction – the relatively cosy Pleasance Theatre is made to feel like a sprawling movie set.

The direction, also by Black, makes full use of every member of the creative team. Natalie Johnson’s set, comprised more of less of a square of washing lines with two balls hanging of them is hugely effective and is used to create a sense of impending doom as the ball representing the comet is moved along the lines closer to the ball representing Earth. Matt Leventhall’s lighting cleverly transports the audience between the different plot threads and creates a powerful cinematic quality where needed. And Mark Harris’ sound design sets the tone perfectly, especially in one climactic moment that brings every element together.

Everyone involved in Catching Comets has brought their absolute A-game and it makes for a slick, subversive, and soulful experience, that brings a perfect blend of comedy and poignancy to the end of the world.

Tag Archives: Piers Black

JURASSIC

★★★

Soho Theatre

JURASSIC

Soho Theatre

★★★

“its infectious silliness makes for lots of big laughs”