Review of 'Namosaur at Factory Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called 'Namosaur. It was about the Vietnam War, but it was not realistic because it was also about dinosaurs because, of course, dinosaurs were not alive in the Vietnam War. It was when my grandma and grandpa were alive and when my mom was a few years old. 'Namosaur is about a woman named Weaver (Laura McKenzie) who goes to the army to tell them about an evil scientist Nguyen Nguyen (Eric Roach) who wanted to make dinosaurs alive again. And it all went wrong because he wanted everybody to die and for the world to start all over again. It was a good idea for a play, but it would be horrible if it could actually happen.

Weaver kept having these weird flashbacks to when she worked with Dr. Nguyen Nguyen. They had to say, "Do you like it?" and then they would go back to when they were working together. And there was a nurse (Angela DeMarco) and she was one of the Doctor's helpers and he shot her. That told us that he was a very cruel character and he would do anything to get dinosaurs back in business.

There were some things that I thought were a little bit too inappropriate for me. Like the intestines I thought were really disgusting. The intestines were bloody and I thought that made it kind of scary. When Bigfoot (Eric Frederickson) explodes the dinosaur and he had blood all over his helmet, that was also kind of creepy. I am fine with the usual type of stage blood, like when someone gets shot, but this was a kind of thicker and bumpier blood that made it a little more scary. The way the soldiers talked to each other was also kind of scary because they were swearing at each other even if they said a complementary thing. Next time, my parents are going to see the show first!

I was suspicious of Professor Chaldarhallohapzrd (Allison Cain) from the beginning. She kept covering her mouth when she was about to give away one of the secrets and stuff. And she kept writing down stuff in a notebook. And she kept giving people Coke in strange intervals. That was part of the character and it was very funny, because whenever she was giving Cokes, people were like "Thanks! That's very nice of you" instead of being like, "Why did you just give us Coke?" She was using the Cokes to get them to be distracted.

There were these two butterfly spirit ladies (Alison Dornheggen and Ele Matelan). They were basically like guides for everyone on the 'Namosaur trip. No matter what they did they always said everything at the exact same time. I thought that that was very interesting to add into the play because you don't think, "In the war there are strange spirit ladies who tell you what to do."

Colonel Evans (Jon Sevigny) was really strange. He was strange because when I think of a colonel I think of a man who is very strong and very brave and very sophisticated. But the colonel that they did in this version was very weird and was not very brave. My mom said it was like in some war movies they show the men who work out on the field as army men and the people who work behind the desks as not very hardworking people. I found him more funny after I processed what he was. He used a spatula as his weapon, which I don't think would be a very good weapon if you went into the battlefield.

The soldiers were very funny but very disturbing. There was one called Tiger-Ass (Linsey Falls) and he meant it very literally, meaning that he actually had a butt that was a tiger pattern. Another one was Bigfoot. They meant like he was like the monster Bigfoot--he was very big and hairy. He didn't have a big foot, he was just called Bigfoot because that is what he was like. I actually liked TP (Ross Compton) because he was very funny and kind of a scaredy cat. I was sad when he died. Buckshot (Brian Parenti) was the brother of Tiger-Ass. He was kind of a jerk because he was the one who was the least nice to Private Osborne (Roy Gonzalez). He was really a good way to get things going; when he died, the play really started the plot. Private Osborne was very cool character because he was kind of scared but the thing was he grew to be very brave. I felt like he was misinterpreted by people in the army. They thought he was just a stupid guy who talked to his grandma. But once you really got to know him, he was very brave.

Sgt. Montrose (Timothy C. Amos) thought he was better than any woman. And one time he had a beer drinking contest against Weaver and they tied. So then after that he was nicer to her because he knew that he was an equal with her. When you first meet Weaver she is a drunk and you don't really like her because she's a drunk, but then later you like her because she's really funny. There is no real moral to this story. The purpose of the play is to make people laugh.

People who would like this show are people who like war movies, weird colonels, and dinosaurs. People should go see this show because it is funny. People might not enjoy it as much if they don't like crass humor, but if they do, they're going to love this show!


Photos: Dan Tamarkin