Robin Hood and The Babes in The Wood

We all know the story of Robin Hood, Maid Marion and the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham. Here the latter was revealed as even more wicked than we had thought, as he wished to ‘bump off’ his delightful young and wealthy niece and nephew, the Babes in the Wood, in order to inherit their wealth. This provided great additional excitement to the story and an extra level of evil to the dastardly Sheriff. A large cast took up the task of ridding Nottingham of this odious man with great gusto.

Ewhurst Village Hall is small, but perfectly formed, with recently installed ranked seating at the rear proving a great asset. There was a warm welcome from the Front of House team, and a cheery atmosphere pervaded the Hall.

We were offered an excellent, well-designed programme, which greatly enhanced our enjoyment of the show. There were interesting notes from the Chairman and the Director, some good rehearsal photos and cast profiles. An enlightening history of the Ewhurst Players, as well as a profile of NODA were included. An absolutely fascinating 3 page article on the history of the Robin Hood and Babes in the Wood legends taught me much I hadn’t known.

Lighting and sound effects were used very effectively and dramatically throughout. Colourful costumes throughout, of course, except for the black-clad sheriff and his side-kick Dennis. The rabbits were in smart tweed jackets, and had marvellous makeup, floppy long-eared caps, and fluffy white tails. Outrageous costumes, wigs and makeup for Winnie Widebottom, intriguing layers of underwear too!

The scenery was excellent, some beautiful forest glades, some fine interior scenes in the Sheriff’s Hall, a scary dungeon, and an exterior view of the huge Castle too. To the right of the stage was the frequently used rabbits’ burrow, with an awning over the entrance, in front of which was a pleasant flowery bank. Props were many – some I remember were fierce-looking swords, bows and arrows, benches and a blackboard for the schoolroom, tree trunks in the forest, hand shackles in the dungeon and a VERY fierce door there. The door in the windowless tower was pelted with large stones, and a huge rock finally broke that door down. Oh and there was one particular arrow which   I shall mention later.

First of all, let me praise the music, the slick choreography, the voice projection, the good use of the stage, and also the length of the piece.  This panto was just the right length. I have seen a couple this year that were much too long for their young target audience, Ewhurst Players got it just right.

The Musical Director, Simon Fraser, was on keyboards, accompanied by a guitar and drums. Sound and voices were all very well balanced, never encroaching on the very funny lyrics, which I understand were written by the M D himself. Much to chortle about here!

It is wonderful to be able to hear the voices, young and old, so clearly. Quite often, particularly in the case of children, one has to strain to hear their words, whether spoken or sung. This wasn’t the case here at Ewhurst, one could hear all the words quite plainly, well done to all here – especially as the words and the lyrics were so amusing.

There was great use of the stage, and indeed the whole hall, and good use was made of the central steps from the stage to the hall, especially during ensemble numbers where some of the children perched on them with the rest of the cast spread out behind, producing a pleasant tableau.

We met the feisty outlaws, a confident thigh-slapping Robin Hood (Nikki Bradley) and her gang: Alana Dale (Lucy Burr), Friar Tuck (Pete Bradley), Little Joan (Natalie Davies) and Jill Scarlett (Nicki Payne). They were a lively lot, full of good ideas. Maid Marion (Georgina Rushworth) appeared, and we heard the Sheriff’s horrid plans for her. Her Nanny, Winnie Widebottom whisked onto the stage. Barry Harrison-Fudge made a great Nanny, especially later in his hilarious striptease scene.

The dastardly Sheriff was masterfully portrayed by Felix Cuthbert, very threatening all in black, with an amazing wig, and yet obviously not the brightest, so on a hiding to nothing. He was aided and abetted, and hindered, by his hapless assistant Dennis, again well played by Daniel Williams.

The Babes in the Wood appeared and were put into the charge of Nanny and sent to the schoolroom. This was a jolly scene with lots of fun with numbers and a version of the Alphabet Song. The Babes – Tilly (Christabel Muggleton on the night I visited) and Tommy (Eli Neal) were excellent, and the juniors in the chorus made this a lively scene.

Robin and Marion fell for each other of course, and there was a good love duet from them. Robin started showing off, and the outlaws berated him in the very fine number ‘You’re so very cocky, cocky, cocky, cocky.’ Which of course was true and led to his capture.

I have seldom seen a panto with so many well-known songs with such cleverly adapted lyrics. Some more I really enjoyed were: ‘Let’s put those Babes where they belong…’; and ‘The Next One Bites the Dust’. There was an old cockney song about rabbiting; and many more I can’t identify. Superb! One really funny one was the Babes singing ‘Can we still be killed by you?’ to, I believe, a very popular love song tune. Panto at its best!

There were so many nice surprises. Robin Hood’s appearance, for example, was always preceded by a twanging arrow arriving in one of the trees to the side of the stage. Very clever – how did they do that, we wondered.

The two jolly rabbits played so well by Zoe Neal and Pippa Simpson were pert and perky, they made a great team and were very endearing, and insisted on finally performing their Rabbit Ballet, when they weren’t shooting back down to their burrow as quick as a flash.

The dungeon scene, with Robin Hood in shackles and Dennis or the Sheriff slamming open the very heavy door right into him, and later of course the same thing happening to the Sheriff, once the outlaws had freed Robin and shackled him instead, was a marvellously funny section.

But the piece de resistance was definitely the attempt to break down the door of the tower with no windows. First the audience were given loads of ‘stones’ to pelt at the door. Then, when that didn’t work, a huge ‘boulder’ was passed down the auditorium, in slow motion, and with great effort tossed by Friar Tuck successfully against the door. Very skilful! Great sound effects again.

Wendy Davies is to be congratulated for her fine direction of this slick, funny, surprising, inventive, well-cast and totally entertaining piece of jolly theatre. The finale, obviously of the wedding of Robin and Maid Marion, was a thoroughly splendid number, involving the whole cast, once again to the extremely catchy melody of a very popular song from the 1960s, with excellent hand-jiving and great movement about the stage so everyone could be admired, and fixed in our memories.

A great evening’s entertainment. Thank you, Ewhurst Players!

 

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