Arts company Emerald Ant and Blandford Town Museum are pleased to present the Iguanodon Restaurant, a wonderfully quirky piece of free street theatre coming to Blandford Town Museum on Saturday, 6th September. A furious romp through 50 years of ground-breaking scientific discoveries that changed how we see the world, ‘Iggy’ the Iguanodon provides family fun for Dino lovers of all ages.
It’s New Year’s Eve, 1853, and in Crystal Palace Park, a group of eminent professors and geologists are holding a sumptuous banquet in an unusual venue – inside the concrete cast of an Iguanodon.
Fossil-fuelled fun ensues as the dinner guests in the Iguanodon Restaurant, famous dinosaur hunters William Buckland, Gideon Mantell, Mary Anning, and Richard Owen wrangle over their amazing fossil finds.
Is it a bird? A giant fish? An ancient crocodile? They debate questions around extinction and evolution – how come dinosaurs no longer exist? What does the stone beneath our feet tell us about the world? And what’s really in that blancmange? Find out in this highly visual, funny, and peculiar performance.
Perfect for families, the Iggy performances will be accompanied on the Dino Day by a drop-in workshop – children (age 4 to 104!) can learn more about fossils, dinosaurs, and of course about their local museum. Roll your sleeves up and get creative, maybe create a badge to take home.
This family-friendly event is suitable for all, and with BSL interpretation, it offers a great opportunity for those who are deaf or hard of hearing to enjoy a piece of theatre to maximum effect. This is in line with Blandford Town Museum’s plans to make the Museum as accessible as possible to everyone, leading the way as the first museum in the UK to use Navilens technology to open up the Museum experience to those who are blind or visually impaired.
This Dino Day is one of 11 across Dorset and Somerset this summer, part of Emerald Ant’s ‘Iggy for All’ project, supported by the Arts Council, Dorset Council, the Valentine Trust, and other foundations.
Full details can be found on the Emerald Ant website: emeraldant.com/iguanodon-restaurant
