I, Animal

I am an animal. We humans share 97% of our DNA with gorillas, we go through the same teenage stages as mandrills and we fall in love like gibbons. At the beginning of I, Animal, the audience is invited to choose from four potential tours – we went with 'Monkeys'. Part of the fun of the show is that you only get one of four potential options. The Monkey tour focuses on 'ancestry' – where we come from, who we are and who we have been. At points it felt like there was a little too much introspection but it also called for nostalgia and remembering the wonder of visiting the zoo as a kid. The best part of the tour was when the male gibbon came to the window to check us out and hung around for that whole section of the show. If we weren't listening to a story about the gibbon pair's love, all the attention could have very easily been mistaken for flirting. The interactive 'Zöe' that accompanied us throughout our experience was worth the rather long line before the show commenced. The device talks to you the whole time, acting as a sort of audio guide and occasionally asks for interactive input, which is woven into the show at later points. An engaging, heartwarming and stimulating show.

Melbourne Zoo to Thursday 21 January