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Robin Hood The Merriest of all Pantos

Author: David Ridout for Julie Addison

Information

Date
14th December 2024
Society
Retford Musical Theatre Company
Venue
Retford Little Theatre
Type of Production
Pantomime
Director
Alison Darksus
Musical Director
Martin Yates
Choreographer
Adele Beaumont
Written By
Matthew Siveter

The story of Robin Hood is based on traditional English folklore and tells the story of Robin Hood an outlaw who lives in the heart of Sherwood Forest preying on wealthy travellers but giving their riches and goods to the poor people. In this story, directed by Alison Darksus, we have a new character, Dangerous Jim (Sam Taylor) who believes that he is as brave as Robin Hood so he joins Robin (or should that have been Robina?) and her band of merry women to defeat the evil sheriff and save the day.

As is usual with Retford pantomimes, there is the added bonus of a live 5-piece band (Sunlil Vidhani, Yvonne Smith, Richard Oaks and Daniel Pattenden) who were all entering into the vibe by wearing jaunty Robin Hood hats.  The musical director, Martin Yates, was on piano and started proceedings with a rousing rendition of ‘Comedy Tonight.’  As always, the music was of a very high quality and added to the overall ambience by punctuating the puns with a well-timed bad um tish on the drums and even the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ theme music. 

Our story is introduced by Fairy Goodwill played with effervescent zeal by Ami Burton who tells us about Robin Hood and the dire straits that England was in following the departure of good King Richard and she encourages the audience to cheer the heroes and boo the villains. 

Dangerous Jim (Sam Taylor) the unrequited would-be hero cursed with the inability to say the word ‘Tequila’, provided most of the slapstick humour and banter with the addition of super soakers resulting in a hilarious audience participation routine.  He also had a ‘golden quiver’ which provided the usual audience call out for ‘Dangerous Jim’ when anyone went near it.  Sam was excellent in this role and worked the audience confidently with his tongue firmly in his cheek as he milked their sympathy and bantered with Freya Tuck. 

The evil villain the Sheriff of Nottingham played by Oliver Ward was a good balance of camp evil baddie channelling his inner Julian Clary and surrounded by atmospheric lighting to emphasise his evil character.  He was sometimes accompanied by his pet owl Toots his comedy sidekick.  He was also ably assisted by his ‘Ex-terminator’ henchmen Good (Sarah Mitchell) and (Gemma Ambrose) Norfolk - swap the names around to hear the pun! They made good use of ‘terminator’ jokes throughout and worked together well.

Robin Hood played by Lottie Noble was good as our dashing hero slapping her thigh in true principal boy style and interacted with the other characters well.  The Dame, Freya Tuck, played by Jamie Savage, was excellent showing his obvious experience and armed with a constant supply of double-entendre pantomime jokes that kept the audience laughing - ‘chipmonk’ and six colourful costume changes including the ‘American Dress’ one yank and it’s off!  The other merrie women included Wilma Scarlett (Rowan Houghton) and Alana Dale (Charlie Taylor) and the tiny doll Little Joan voiced off stage.  They bantered well with Freya Tuck often providing the punchline to her jokes as she scoured the audience with her magic magnet for the new love of her life. 

Maid Marian, daughter of King Richard, played by Megan Huntley was not your usual simpering heroine proving she was more than a match for the Sheriff and his henchman she also had a solo and a lovely duet to ‘Whole New World’ with Robin .

The ensemble was good providing some lovely harmonies particularly in ‘Topsy Turvey’ and by playing some of the minor parts such as the Navi-Gator, The Bear, and The Dark Knight who featured in the traditional ghost scene.  The choreography and dance numbers provided by Adele Beaumont were very good.  

Special mention to the delightfully ditzy Fairy Goodwill played by Ami Burton in her debut performance who was a lovely standout character with infectious bubbly enthusiasm, excellent vocals and stage presence she interacted with the audience very well with a sing-song voice punctuated with giggles every inch a pantomime fairy!  I look forward to seeing her in Retford’s future productions. 

A stand-out scene featured Freya Tuck and Dangerous Jim as they used various cleaning products to tell a short story using the product names in a toe-curling pun-run requiring good comic timing and the ability to think spontaneously.  I also liked the purple and gold themed finale. 

Costumes were good and in keeping with the overall olde England theme with the ensemble in medieval costume which they remained in throughout.  The fairy wore fairy wings with a light up wand and all the ‘merrie women’ wore tights and coloured tunics, boots and feathered hats.  I liked Alana Dale’s costume featuring a pocket with a red ‘J’ where Little Joan hid.  The Sheriff wore evil villain black and lots of black guy-liner!

The set was simple in design with coloured flats decorated with trees to enhance the forest theme.  The backdrop was a traditional village market scene with cottages and shops.  Stocks bearing an unfortunate victim and various stalls in the marketplace were used well by the ensemble especially in their opening number ‘Topsy Turvey.’  A woodland scene provided a backdrop for the variety of nymphs and fairies in the ballet routine (provided by members of Staples Dance Academy) and a skeleton routine to ‘Spooky Scary Skeletons’in the second act.  It was also nice to see some young boys in the chorus.  The main dancers (Olivia and Toby) were excellent providing a beautiful well-choreographed ballet with lots of intricate lifts. Lighting (Cody McGinty) was used effectively to add overall ambience and blackouts for scene changes were well executed. 

All in all, a very enjoyable traditional panto with a modern girl power twist.  Well done director Alison and everyone who obviously worked incredibly hard, whether behind the scenes or on stage a real team effort.  

 

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