Robin Hood the Panto

Written by Lee Redwood “Robin Hood the Panto” was very much a Traditional Pantomime. The excellent opening scene was a war of words between the baddy, The Sherriff of Nottingham, and the goody “The Sorceress of Nottingham” This certainly got the audience participation going, and after the Sherriff lost his lines and came out of character to ask for a prompt, he was never going to win the battle with the audience. The excellent Sorceress was always going come out on top.

Unfortunately from the start there were one or two gremlins in sound system that never seemed to be overcome. Luckily, Silly Billy, who was outstanding on the night, seemed to ignore these problems and in my opinion he just kept the show flowing with his enthusiasm. The postman scene was excellent, even though the prompt had to participate. I also thought the trio with Robin Hood and Maid Marion on the wall was excellent. The Dame also shone. He looked super, was full of bounce with superb costumes that were changed for every entrance. However, because of the hit and miss personal microphones, he did lack projection at times. With a junior and senior chorus, the stage was a little crowded a times, but everyone looked good and performed with enthusiasm throughout

The Director, Lee Redwood, was also on keyboards providing the excellent musical accompaniment, and in several places had to cut the sound right down so that the audience could hear the vocals. Ferndown Village hall is only a small venue, and one must ask, were personal microphones really needed, given that not all the main characters had one? They did seem to cause a lot of problems and unfortunately, in my opinion, it spoilt what was otherwise a very good show.

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