★★★☆☆
Bristol Old Vic’s jolly jape of a Christmas show was devised by the Wardrobe Ensemble, a group nurtured into being a decade ago through the venue’s young artists support scheme. Wardrobe’s Robin Hood: Legend of the Forgotten Forest, a pleasingly boisterous, refreshingly low-tech send-up of English folklore, demonstrates that mince pies and green tights are a good seasonal match. Aimed at a family audience and bubbling with anachronistic humour, the two-act production adds up to a lot of knowingly silly fun. And if the Pythonesque, pantoesque tomfoolery ultimately becomes more than a mite drawn out, the show is likeably energetic.
Ably co-directed by Tom Brennan and Helena Middleton, this jocular cod-historical adventure is framed by the character of the bookish but friendless misfit schoolboy JJ (played winningly by the adult Dorian Simpson) magically whisked back in time to meet and join the gang led by his mythical, titular hero. Reluctantly led, that is, for in Wardrobe’s hands Robin Hood is a jaded woman (the forthright Kerry Lovell) damaged by a past trauma and wanting nothing more than to escape to the Costa del Sol. Although the members of her erstwhile merry crew have all gone their separate ways, JJ persuades them to reunite to fight their and the people of Sherwood Forest’s common enemy — who else but the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham?
Sporting a wonderfully unbecoming Prince Valiant wig, James Newton revels in the role of this childishly vain, camp and corrupt scoundrel. Newton makes it plain how much this comic villain relishes his own villainy. In one particularly priceless moment the Sheriff strides into a public meeting literally blowing his own trumpet, and then proceeds to boast, “We are stronger and healthier than ever.” Sound familiar? Amusingly smarmy yet emanating just the right degree of genuine menace, the Sheriff is one man we can love to hate.
Although all eight cast members gamely play numerous other parts, it is worth noting Jesse Meadows larging it as Friar Tuck, Katja Quist as a Maid Marian who hides her affection for Robin behind mercenary muscle, and especially Tom England’s endearing Will Scarlet, a gangly, bearded bard turned gung-ho metrosexual family man. Each lead is introduced, and the group’s subsequent exploits wittily placed, in an Ocean’s Eleven-style context thanks to would-be slick, slow-mo moves and groovy instrumentals courtesy of the composer and musical director Tom Crosley-Thorne (who also contributes a soul-soothingly melodious cameo). There are, almost inevitably, several references to ye olde Kevin Costner’s 1991 cinematic incarnation of Robin, plus a singalong to Bryan Adams’s anthemic (Everything I Do) I Do It for You. How do you say cheese in Middle English?
To Jan 8, bristololdvic.org.uk
Follow @timesarts on Twitter to read the latest reviews