Medstead Players - 'Robin Hood' - December 1998
Written by Jo Smith
Directed by Stan Whitcher
Players' Fun Filled Cracker Slapstick and plenty of audience participation with a lot of good clean fun are the ingredients for a spanking good pantomime.
And last weekend the Medstead Players served up the perfect Christmas offering with their version of Robin Hood.
Local playwright and author, Jo Smith, gave director Stan Whitcher and producer Lesley Rae a first-rate script to take their cast of 26 players "riding through the glen" with Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Medstead Players are lucky to have such a wealth of talent ranging from the very young to the more mature, as well a huge backstage crew to produce stunning costumes and eye-catching sets.
From prologue to final curtain the audience were treated to a fun-filled, action packed panto with some pretty innovative antics which included a cranky cricket match between Nottingham's nuns and Tuck's Friars and an equally bizarre archery match with The Hood and his band.
Apart from the usual stage sing-along, children in the audience were invited to pelt the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham with wet sponges once he was safely locked in the stocks.
David Carter was absolutely splendid as the black-hearted Sheriff, aided and abetted by his sidekicks Major Oak (Lucy Western) and Private Beech (Gareth Bennell).
Shapely principal boy Rachel Smith played Robin with great panache.
Loved by the good and hated by the bad, Robin and his/her band saved Maid Marion (Sue Millett) from torture and death in the dungeons of Nottingham Castle.
There were plenty of hisses, boos, custard pies and singalongs with Stan Whitcher, the best add-libbing pantomime dame in the business, and a delightfully rotund Sue Ovell playing Friar Tuck acting as the lynchpins to keep up the momentum.
From smallest fairy to mighty monarch (Richard Lionheart played by David Rae) the cast gave the show all they had got so that, at times, it was difficult to know whether the players or audience were enjoying themselves more.
Directed by Stan Whitcher with musical accompaniment by Carol Fuller and Peter Gibson and a stunning wardrobe provided by Marion Rogers with Val and Anita Prior - Robin Hood must rate with the best of the Medstead Players' productions.
[SAC]
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