Comic rocket thrust in da hood!

Published Friday 9 December 2011 at 17:13 by Richard Edmonds, The Stage

09 December 2011

Richard the Lionheart is but a minor presence in this bizarre panto retelling of the old tale of Robin Hood, Maid Marion et al. There were definitely no babes at risk in Sherwood when Robin lorded it in the greenwood, but this is Holman and Billings’ version of the legend, tailored for their extremely able principals.

The pattern of events is predictable - Robin Hood (the handsome Graeme Kinniburgh) takes a shine to Janine Pardo’s very pretty Maid Marion, and she has stars in her eyes from the word go. Into all this sugary sweetness creeps the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham, with one eye on the babes and the other on the outcome of the Crusades, since the Lionheart’s return spells personal disaster.

Did a theatre packed to the roof at 10.15am with several schools parties care about history? Not one bit - they cheered Robin and Marion and booed the sheriff, which is exactly what I would have done had I been a seven-year-old at Oakengates.

Ian Ganderton provides an intelligent Nurse Tilly Twitter, and the comics indulge their young audience, demanding high-decibel screams when the narrative dragged a bit. And as comics go, Neil Wheatley and Jason Francis provide comic rocket thrust. Here are two wonderful drolls whose manic clowning stopped the show, turning its willing young audience into spoof anarchists.

“Shall I kill him?”, asks Robin, as the sheriff begs for mercy. “Yes!” screamed the kids.
You wouldn’t have had greater enthusiasm for a thumbs down from Roman audiences at the Colosseum.