The programme tells us that the origins of Robin Hood are in 1220 in Yorkshire, but I was brought up watching the black and white TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood (made between 1955-1959) starring Richard Greene and for me, those characters will forever be defined by those creations. It has always been a story of good triumphing over evil, of the redistribution of wealth and of people who value the woodlands, so I am not sure why it needs to be rewritten. Carl Goose seeks to reinvent the characters for a modern social and political landscape with a rebalancing of gender roles and I assume to attract new audiences to the folk hero. You are at least notified of what to expect by the colon and “Re-written”, it is never a good sign to see punctuation in the title!
Having seen a great many shows in the last week, I felt I was in some sort of nightmare where so many influences were jumbled up with my memories. Monty Pythonesque Barons trotted on, recast from The Holy Grail. The eye-gouging and graphic violence of “The Pillowman” regularly appeared. The overbearing authority figures dressed in black decreeing death to all appeared from “The Crucible”. The Balladeer from “Assassins” popped up to narrate a link. The King (unnamed) stumbled around, and I expected him to break into “You'll be back” from “Hamilton” at any moment. When the soldiers appeared in hi-vis jackets, I thought Viggo Venn (from Britain’s got talent) was going to prance around the stage at any moment. Then when three Robin Hoods appeared I at least recognised them as being part of the story, Richard Greene’s version in Lincoln green tights, Michael Praed’s version from the 1980’s Robin of Sherwood and a third who represented every other Robin there has been from Yorkshire, Newcastle, Ireland, and Canada. Indeed, their appearances provided some of the best moments of humour and audience appreciation.
