This Robin is Strictly Come Jousting
Robin Hood (Bristol Old Vic) Verdict: Robin and the Merry Men rather miss the target ★★★☆☆
BONNIE TYLER’S 1980s hit Holding Out For A Hero sets the tone for this year’s Christmas show at Bristol Old Vic, which dusts off the story of Robin Hood.
Thanks to a kind librarian who has dug up a poster of The Prince Of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner, and an old book, Tales Of A Forgotten Forest, introverted, innocent schoolboy JJ (cuddly Dorian Simpson), turns time-traveller.
He falls, with a bump, into Sherwood Forest, where the nasty narcissistic Sheriff of Nottingham, who makes his entry blowing his own, er, trombone, is clamping down on those who can’t afford to pay their taxes.
Otherwise, things have moved on since medieval times.
Robin Hood has retired from being a legend. She is a girl; and she and her ex, Maid Marian (a terrific boxer), are avoiding one another. Friar Tuck is a female monk who has hit the ‘holy water’. Will Scarlet is distracted, having become a dad (his dad-dancing scene is a highlight).
Somehow JJ forces a comeback of the Merry Men, if more in the mode of Ocean’s Eleven.
Recharged with a blast of that irresistible music from the original movie and the old team-spirit, they plan an ingenious heist to retrieve the stolen dosh from the castle vaults.
Bristol’s Wardrobe Ensemble’s rollicking romp ticks dozens of boxes.
It’s action-packed, punctuated by cheery sing-alongs of Bryan Adams’s Everything I Do (courtesy of the 1991 Costner movie).
It’s also tactfully right-on, without being uncomfortably in-yer-face. And it’s stuffed with wholesome lessons: that heroes come in all guises, including overgrown kids, girls, old women and dancing dads.
As does heroism, because it takes real courage to reach out and be friendly.
The fencing is fantastic; the kissing restrained (credit to Fight and Intimacy Directors).
Entertaining and enjoyable but without real edge or spark, it hits the target as Strictly Come Jousting, but rather misses the X Factor.