About the Play:

Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish is a musical play for young audiences with book by David Wood and music and lyrics by Peter Pontzen. Based on the best-selling book by Michael Foreman, Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish is an ever-topical musical play for young people, with an environmental theme.

Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish is about an unhappy man who thinks there may be a better place to live than Earth. The man destroys his own world through misuse and disrespect, only to search for a replacement in the stars. He builds a rocket and blasts off through the ozone layer, leaving behind a ruined planet. While he's away, the Dinosaurs come back and restore Earth to discover desolation and destruction. In this humorous and intelligent story, the dancing Dinosaurs restore the Earth to its former beauty, with the help of the Animal Kingdom. Ironically, when the man returns, he tries to lay claim to the new, blooming planet he has discovered; but he is reminded that this is the same decaying Earth he had ruined and abandoned. The man realizes that although people cannot destroy the planet, they must learn to respect it. With a prehistoric hero and a high-tech space travelling machine, Dinosaurs And All That Rubbish is sure to captivate the imagination of almost any child.

Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish was commissioned by Howell's School, Denbigh, Clwyd, North Wales, and first produced by the pupils of the school in 1986. The play was subsequently presented by Whirligig Theatre at the Darlington Arts Centre, the Grand Theatre, Swansea and Sadler's Wells Theatre, London in 1988.

Cast: 10 female or male (flexible casting)

What people say:

"David Wood's timely text was brought exuberantly to life by the Whirligig Theatre… a fable about the dangers of abusing the environment." — Times Educational Supplement (London)

"There is something about the Dinosaurs that is perennially appealing to the young, and it was an inspiration to present Man in his arrogance turning Paradise into a rubbish dump and then seeking escape to the nearest star in a rocket, only to find it complexly arid and barren, proving the theory that the grass is greener on the other side is indeed a fallacy… the message obviously appealed to everyone in the audience… David Wood and Peter Pontzen's musical play has just the right ingredients to please the young, who filled Sadler's Wells to capacity the day I attended." — The Stage

About the Playwright:

David Wood is an English writer and actor who has been writing, adapting, directing and acting in plays for children for more than twenty-five years. Described by The Times as "the national children's dramatist," his plays have enjoyed international professional success and entered the repertory of recreational companies and school dramatic societies.