ROBIN HOOD. To 24 August.
London
ROBIN HOOD
by David Wood and Dave & Toni Arthur
Greenwich Theatre To 24 August 2002
Mon-Sat 7pm Mat Sat 2pm
Runs 1hr 50min One interval
TICKETS 020 8858 7755
Review Timothy Ramsden 10 August
A valuable young performers' project in Greenwich, if with somewhat limited material.A valuable enterprise, this matches recently graduated young performers (main roles) with teenagers (lesser roles) picked out not by director's audition, but through a government programme, Excellence in Cities and its Gifted and Talented Fund. Whatever the difference may be between 'Gifted' and 'Talented', it makes for a fine opportunity all round.
All play as a team, and the production slot (begun last year with West Side Story) fills a theatre for three summer weeks, giving new actors a chance to test their skills in sizeable roles on a major stage rather than play miniscule back-rooms or achieve instant TV typecasting. For their younger colleagues, the opportunity of working alongside people with professional skills and (just as important) discipline, plus the experienced production team, must be an unrivalled lesson in the demands of theatre.
Take fighting: there's a lot in here. Robin spends so much of act one losing fights to his potential recruits I began to worry whether he'd have any stuffing left to pose a threat to Rob Layton's caddish Sheriff. It's excellent fighting too, between Robin, the Friar and Marcus Webb's looming Little John, and reaching its height in Robin's bout against Sheriff's man Guy of Gisborne - all reflecting the benefits of working with Malcolm Ranson, one of Britain's leading fight directors.
Guy Michaels is a likeable hero, partnered beautifully by Rebecca Wilkinson's Marion: a sweet, fair-haired creature who's well able to put the boot in when it comes to a scrap with Mrs Sheriff. By contrast Philip Oakland's superb ugly mug serves excellently for Robin's opponent and the local Fool: it's a relief, come curtain-call, to realise his features hadn't become permanently set that way.
The play itself - over 20 years old - is relentlessly cheerful. Artfully it presents Robin's escapades as part of a May Day celebration. But its view of such life is picture postcard operetta-ish, something echoed in the folksy tunes. All very pleasant; but no more, limiting the emotional range it offers the young cast alongside the technical variety of song, dance, swordplay and fistfight.
Robin Hood: Guy Michaels
Little John: Marcus Webb
Friar Tuck: Gareth Davies
Maid Marion: Rebecca Wilkinson
Guy of Gisborne/Fool: Philip Oakland
Sheriff's Wife/Narrator: Vasilia Furnell
Allen-a-Dale/Minstrel: Joseph Gera
Musician: Michael Tyack
Sheriff of Nottingham: Rob Layton
Will Scarlet/Bishop: Daniel Louard
Much the Miller's Son: Mourad Hatden
Pretty Maid: Dee Harrington
Sheriff's Flunkies/Milkmaids: Christina Edwards, Ellen Robinson, Lisa Taylor
Director: Hilary Strong
Designer: Nance L. Surman
Lighting: Jim Simmons
Costume: Sades Robinson
Musical Director: Ben Hall
Choreographer: Nicky McGinty
Fight director: Malcolm Ranson
Vocal coach: Toni Arthur-Hay
Fight captain: Marcus Webb
2002-08-12 01:18:44