The Adventures of Robin Hood
Gala Theatre
28th November 2021
This year's Panto at The Gala, Durham is The Adventures of Robin Hood. It has the evil Sheriff of Nottingham pitched against Robin and the Merry Men of Sherburn Forest, and Maid Marianne - who is refreshingly not your typical panto princess. She's a bare knuckle boxer and has a PhD in it to boot!
This panto has everything you'd expect - the local jokes, references to national and international news, dancing, singing, booing - though not so much hissing - at the bad guy, some slapstick, quite a lot of slapping thighs, and a bloke dressed up as a dame. It also has Dennis, a woman dressed up as a bloke ...sort of. He's not a very convincing man, though he does manage to fool Robin and the others. Marianne however sees right through it, because she's a savvy lass!
I think the strength of this production is it's simplicity - it sticks to a story, and the musical numbers flow with it - none of it is shoe-horned in which is often the case in a Panto. There are also great parts for the younger members of the cast - Little John and the brilliant Murderous Monks Of Murton who absolutely stole the show for me (well, right up until the point when Little John got a snorkel and mask tangled in his hair, and that kind of stole their thunder! You can't beat a good wardrobe malfunction to make a Panto!) There was a lot of near corpsing from the cast and plenty of ad-libbing throughout! The cast were clearly having fun with it all and that just adds to the experience for the audience.
It's fun, it has some great comedy moments, some clever jokes and some terrible ones, and though it sticks to the format it doesn't belabour the usual Panto formula. Well worth a ticket to entertain the family this Christmas.
Robin Hood and his Merry Men are at the Gala right through to 9th January so there is plenty of time to get along to see it. I'd recommend it!
Denise Sparrowhawk
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