Robin Hood: The Legend. Rewritten - Regent's Park Open Air Theatre Review

★ ★

Reviewer - Eleanor

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review

Every summer, Regents Park Open Air Theatre offers an exciting and jam-packed seasonal programme. This outdoor venue always makes for an exciting visit and their new venture was no exception. Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-Written is a new production which aims to bring a new twist to this classic and well-known tale. It is written by Carl Grose, directed by Melly Still and with music composed by Jenny Moore. Unsurprisingly, Regents Park is the perfect venue for this show. As you are nestled among the trees and the sun sets it makes for a very atmospheric spot to spend an evening. After my visit on this occasion, I will certainly make the effort to travel back.

This reimagining of the Robin Hood myth opens with an eerie soundscape of steel drums, singing bowls and gongs as the ensemble enter the stage through the audience. Although this does immediately set a clear tone, the instruments used here did seem at odds with the woodland background and I was immediately unsure where this show was set. As an audience, you are quickly introduced to the balladeer and narrator (Nandi Bhebhe). The balladeer’s primary use was to aid the transition between scenes, often with a song or by leading a musical interlude. But I always felt that she provided a clearer message when she was talking in prose rather than singing. We later find out how this character truly fits in with the ensemble and her close ties to the main protagonist. Although this is played as an interesting revelation, it could have been more impactful if the audience were always aware of this, as is the case with some of the other relationships in this show. I also found myself confused as to who could actually see the balladeer. She breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience, passing unseen by most of the characters. This leads you to think she is simply a spirit which only you as an audience can really engage with. But following some small interactions with other characters which are never fully explained I was left unsure who and what she was, which was quite unfulfilling.

The other people within this ‘Merry Men’ style band of outlaws, who just describe themselves as ‘The Merry,’ are Bob (Dave Fishley) and his daughter Woodnut (Dumile Lindiwe Sibanda). I did find it curious that although they had strong roots in this village community, they were the only ones with regional accents. The show starts with Bob not being able to pay his taxes following the recent death of his wife and being sentenced to hang. Following his arrest, Woodnut flees into the forest to find her mother’s grave and prays for a way to save him. It is here that they meet Little Joan (Charlotte Beaumont) and Mary Tuck (Elexi Walker), who are female interpretations of the classic Robin Hood characters. They are first mistaken by Woodnut as woodland spirits as they appear out of the forest with imposing disguises made from long dried grass/hay and tribal masks. Again, like some of the music, this did not really fit with the other design elements. The costumes more generally were also very mixed here; one character wearing a medieval-style tabard and the other in denim. This may have been done purposefully to make the time setting of the show inconclusive, but it did not really work for me. The ensemble is rounded off by Samuel Gosrani as Will Scatlocke and Ellen Robertson as Marian. Although both characters have some key scenes, none of these performers are given the opportunity to give wholly stand-out performances. They are clearly hampered by the material and direction they are working with.

The Robin Hood ensemble. Photo_ Pamela Raith. .jpg

Dumile Sibanda (Woodnut) and Ira Mandela Siobhan (Gisburne). Photo_ Pamela Raith..jpg

Much of the enjoyment I garnered from this production came from the inclusion of various other iterations of Robin Hood who appeared on stage from time to time believing their presence was needed in the story (which arguably, it was!) The sight of the recognisable feathered hat and green tights was very comical, especially when paired with a more serious a brooding film iteration which popped up. These lighter interludes also gave the narrator someone to understandably interact with and I really wish they were used in a more meaningful way.

There were also some elements of the staging I thought worked within this space. Its primary strength came from having the two layers of the stage; the above was used primarily for the elite and the below for the outlaws. This effectively showed the division between these two class groups. I also thought the artificial lighting gave a good distinction of when a scene was set outside or inside, and I thought the revolve was used well in some cases to shift between scenes. Scene transitions took place with a swift ‘swishing’ effect using long sticks, which evoked the sound of an arrow. However, some transitions were more lazily done, with one instance of a character just screaming to end a conversation. Similarly, the use of slow movement was good but then taken too far in some instances. But the arrow tricks used throughout Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-Written were very impressive and exciting. It is particularly effective in the first scene where ‘Hood’ appears and he shoots through the shoes of the sheriff. I am still unsure how this trick was done.

As you would expect, the villain of the piece is Sheriff Baldwyn (Alex Mugnaioni) who fulfils the same role as the typical Sheriff of Nottingham. I was really longing for a strong maleficent presence to get behind here to bring the story together, but unfortunately, I did not really find it. The sheriff and his barons are quite campy at times and often come across as childish and unconcerned. It is hard to believe that ‘The Merry’ have a truly dark force to fight against as this collective is so uninspiring. There is one specific plot device associated with Baldwyn (which I will not spoil here for all those who do see the show) which was just odd and cast a sorry veil over what could have been a very interesting character. I later thought that a real villain would come out of the shadows in the form of Gisburne (Ira Mandela Siobhan); a violent mercenary who is working for the barons to purge the village from outlaws. He is built up to be a rather serious and menacing presence who the audience should be fearful of, brooding in the background of some scenes and often silent. But again, he is later played for laughs and is so overdramatic that I lost all interest in the character. This leaves the show with very little stakes come the end as none of the evil forces they face truly seem that evil.

In some instances within the show, the characters address the audience directly; proclamations are made out to the crowd or a look is made to the audience during dialogue. But it was unclear in these cases whether they wished for the audience to participate. At the beginning of the show a few people even booed and hissed at the Sheriff, as if it were a pantomime, and I don’t blame them for assuming this was wanted. This confused messaging and tone was a consistent issue for me throughout Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-Written. Although the show has been labled as ‘family friendly’ there was persistent and unnecessary bad language throughout. One moment they are whistling the theme song from the Disney adaptation, and the next they are on a drugs trip and you are visibly witnessing a hanging. This undoubtedly excludes a lot of younger audience member who could really enjoy this show, but I was unsurprised that a few parents left before the interval.

Overall I found Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-Written tonally confusing. I was consistently unsure where the story was set and when it was set, which never allowed me to establish a sense of place. I feel the production needed to decide if this was a serious show or a comical one; they needed to either lean into the more pantomime aspects and tailor the content for families or remove the child-like aspects and give an adult audience a more serious set of characters to get invested in. The acting and singing is good across the board but some of the choices made here are just odd. Even with the scenes I enjoyed, often to appreciate them they would need to be taken out of context of the rest of the show.