Like a Christmas pudding, a panto needs to have a universally agreed set of ingredients in order to be deemed a success. So how does Robin Hood do against the checklist?
Pantomine dame? Check. Daniel Stockton plays Dame Terese Tuck in grand, outrageous style, with a line of fabulous dresses and wigs, a sharp eye for eligible men in the audience to flirt with, and a very fine singing voice.
Baddies to boo? Check. Robin Hood gives us the campest baddies in town with the Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisbourne. Alan Rickman has nothing on these two. Easily stealing the show, Andrew Pepper and Kris Manuel are clearly having a ball as they quip with each other, the merry men, and the audience throughout.
Audience participation? Check. There is enough “He’s behind you!”, “Oh no he isn’t!” type shouting to satisfy any child (or adult) who needs to let off some steam. There’s a sing-along, birthday shout outs, and the terrifying moment when you hope you’re far back enough in the audience to not get pulled up on stage, whilst still close enough to catch the sweets. (That can’t just be me.)
But are there special ingredients? Is there something to turn a pound shop basic Christmas pud into a Waitrose finest? The scenes that stood out for me were the completely bonkers ones, which had absolutely nothing to do with the plot. (If you can say any panto has much of a plot, aside from boo baddies, yay goodies, slapstick fight, happy ending.) The first occurs when Marian has run away dressed as a boy, and she and Robin are sleeping in the woods. The moon becomes a projector screen, displaying various strange and mysterious images, while four incarnations of David Bowie dance about on stage. They come out of nowhere, and never get mentioned again. The second, again in the woods, features Dame Tuck, four brown lycra-clad trees with creepily long fingers/branches, and a disturbingly suggestive chat with a tree trunk.
It’s very weird. It’s very loud. It’s a lot of fun. Sounds like Christmas to me. Pour some brandy butter on it and there’s certainly enough to go around. ★★★★☆ Deborah Sims
Photos by Nick Holmes
