Robin Hood and the Babes In The Woods

Well, that was certainly different! In fact, I’m not quite sure how to categorise this show. Traditional pantomime would certainly be stretching it a bit. No handsome prince or damsel in distress, so no love interest, or fairies to sprinkle good or evil stardust, but we certainly had a Dame, Nursey and we most certainly had a villain – The Evil Sheriff, a Robin Hood who wasn’t into violence, a Maid Marrion who most certainly was, a bunch of champagne drinking villagers, a lot of Pit Runners, a Baron only interested in baking and a whole host of locally inspired mickey taking jokes. All I know is that this quirky panto written by Trev Cook, Adrian Smith and the Director Matt Rowson kept us highly amused from start to finish. It certainly broke a mould and I’m still smiling as I write this.

The basic story centred around the two Babes, who happen to own the local park which is popular with the local pit runners.  The babes are looked after (in the loosest sense of the word) by Nursey. However, should anything happen to the Babes, the Baron would inherit the park. So, the evil Sheriff, who has the Baron wrapped round his little finger sets out to make sure something happens to the babes so he can own the park. Enter Robin Hood and his bunch of merry (aka drunk) men led astray by Friar Tuck. Add in Odell Boy who lives under a bridge across a river which is destined to flood, and not forgetting Batman, some local jokes about the Co-op, school drop off times, 4x4 drivers, pampas grass and doggy poo bags left hanging in trees and you get the idea.

The set by Chris Chaplin, Geoff Chatfield and Alex Williams and managed by Karen Stigter was black cloths beautifully embroidered with ornate trees and stylised figures of eight, sparkling, silver leaves. There was a sign at the back pointing to opposite wings to Harrold and Carlton.  The cloth stage left was neatly hooked up out of the way to reveal a modern wallpaper design for the Baron’s kitchen. There was a little bridge in the  middle of the stage which was cleverly reversed to be the worktop and draws in the Baron’s kitchen.  Add in some boxes to make up the tables and seats plus two wonderfully stylised cut out car shapes, a flood sign destined to always be giving the wrong information to the locals, and the stage was set. Very cleverly thought out. The set changes themselves became very much part of the evening and were a little bit long winded and clunky, but they did a grand job and the hard working  stage crew even took a bow at the end. I certainly didn’t envy them the job of clearing up after the bread fight! More about that later.

Lighting by Chris Chaplin and Elliot Chapman was excellent and sound by Ian Pearson was crystal. I never thought about either during the show, which is always a good sign. But I was surprised at the lack of a microphone during the only solo, sung by Claire Pointon as Little John!. Apparently, there was technical hitch and the wireless belt transmitter had been accidentally set to zero! Bravely done then!

Costumes sourced by Fran Ross were excellent. The two Babes costumes with Babe 1 and Babe 2 on their backs, were highly amusing and Robin and the Merry Men extremely well outfitted. And kitting the Sheriff out in Wild West style was a stroke of incongruous genius! Surprisingly, no extravagant outfits for every scene change for Nursey our dame, who stayed in the same nursing outfit for the whole show, which actually worked very well and certainly would have saved a bob or two in hire costs. Excellent make up by Sophie Cable especially for our bearded Dame.

The excellent Rick Davis took on the part of Nursey with great enthusiasm having us in hysterics on many an occasion. His taking his time to fall over after being hit over the head and then lying on the floor, bloomers on full show and everybody failing to drag him of the stage, together with the bread fight were particular standout moments.

The two babes, Clare Page and Elizabeth Spurling had some wonderful facial expressions and poses and  contrasted each other superbly, Babe 2 being particularly vocally loud and repeating the last word/syllable to much amusement. Excellent pair!

Rachel Morrey brilliantly contrasted as the non-violent, but still very much in charge, thigh-slapping Robin Hood, with Fran Ross as a very aggressive Maid Marion who was looking for  a fight at every opportunity.  Superbly backed up by the mostly female Merry Men: Adrian Smith as Friar Tuck (loved the hair piece), Claire Pointon as Little John, Hannah Smith as Will Scarlet and Lucy Anderson as the cleverly renamed Alana Dale.

Simon Wells made a great baddy as The Sherriff and, as I alluded to before, the bread fight with rolls and French loaves between him and Nursey was definitely the unforgettable scene of the show. There were more crumbs on the stage at the end than you’d find in a bakery! Absolutely hilarious.

Trevor Cook was the mild mannered, easily manipulated Baron and Simon Alaluf was the strange Odell Boy and Batman. The slow-motion fight between Batman and The Sheriff was another brilliantly enjoyable scene.

Lauren Wilby as Harri and Ben Payne as Carl (names cleverly adapted from Harrold and Carlton) cleverly helped cover up the time it took to clear the stage by coming on with a very heavy box they couldn’t lift. Cue audience member to the rescue.

Talking of audience participation, first we had ‘Rodney’, played by an audience member, cajoled by her nephew in the cast and given lines to read on stage. We also had a totally implausible but highly amusing archery competition using vegetables as arrows where two audience members (I suspect they were plants?) who called themselves ‘Rambo’ and ‘Voldemort’ fired sweet potatoes and carrots at an archery target. Brilliant!

Well done also to Mary Chatfield, Cathy Nicholls, Gill Collins, Mike Alison and Debbie Samuel working hard as villagers and pit runners.

As I said this really tore up the rule book on pantos and what a refreshing change it was too. Nothing quite made sense, but that was the point and made it even more enjoyable. So well done to Matt Rowson, his cast and crew, an excellent example of what local pantomime should be. And thank you to the FOH staff for the excellent hospitality!

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