The Heart of Robin Hood
RSC, 23rd November 2011and 30th November
So much did I love The Heart of Robin Hood that I took my children to see it twice. I have never, on the basis of expense, been to see the same performance more than once. Would it be as compelling and entertaining second time round?
On our first occasion, sitting with my children and a friend and her son, eating pizza before the performance, we talked about what we knew of Robin Hood. We all had our own ideas based on books or films and for me the definitive source was the 1991 film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Remember when Kevin Costner kisses the earth when he arrives in England after fighting in the Crusades? And so, ‘Hollywood Robin’ was born.
This pre-amble proved to be quite pertinent because, as with any mythic figure, each generation will bring their own interpretation to the character. It was not until Victorian times that the idea of stealing from the rich to give to the poor was added to the Robin Hood fable. Until then he was simply a thuggish outlaw whose antics were loved and feared because of his freedom from all authority which the woodlands of Sherwood provided. And so it is with David Farr’s excellent play where we find Robin, played by James McArdle, enjoying himself enormously in Sherwood Forest, robbing any rich nobleman who dares to enter the forest. McArdle plays Hood as a dirty, Northern Peter Pan who sweeps down from the remarkable woodland scenery to accost his victims. His merry men consist of Much (Robert Luckay), Little John (Michael Walter) and Will (Darwin Shaw). They all make hyena-like screams as they attack and the drama is therefore instantly engaging and boisterous when they make their first assault.
But where is this lovable rogue’s compassion, where is his heart and what is at the heart of this ancient parable? Enter Maid Marion who seems to have taken her stage direction straight out of Shakespeare. To flee an arranged marriage to dastardly Prince John she enters Sherwood Forest dressed as a man and becomes an outlaw with morals; robbing the rich and imaginatively, giving to the poor. As David Farr readily admits, his Marion owes much to Rosalind in As You Like It who flees persecution in her uncle’s court to find safety and ultimately love, in the forest of Arden. Marion, dressed as Martin, is accompanied by her servant, Pierre. Played by the Icelandic actor Olafur Darri Olafsson, Pierre is a wonderful, camp, larger than life cross between Sir Toby Belch and Touchstone who provides much of the play’s comic engagement.
The Shakespearean themes do not end here. The woodland setting itself is instantly reminiscent of A Midsummer Night’s Dream where mystery and enchantment go hand-in-hand. Much of the play’s darkness seems also to pay homage to Shakespeare’s bloodlust; from the ripping out of Makepeace’s tongue, to the threat of killing the children and the hanging corpse of their father. At the end, when the forces of good and evil come head to head and a fight ensues, Marion rips the dress off her sister Alice. Then, in white petticoat, hair streaming about her, Alice falls into the pond and I was instantly reminded of Ophelia.
This pond was used imaginatively throughout the play, for the outlaws to hide in or for people to fall into. This is just one aspect of the inspired scenery by Borkur Johnsson. Johnsson was brought on board by the play’s Icelandic director, Gisli Orn Gardarsson and it is perhaps this Icelandic creative contingent which has so ignited this performance. With the branches of the trees forming a platform above the stage, leading to the stage is a huge, moss covered skate ramp from which characters are propelled into the forest at high speed. This creates a movement of action up and down as well as horizontally which grabs the attention, especially of children. Addis Williams, who plays Gisborne’s Henchman, winds himself acrobatically up and down the ropes from the trees, to land silently and menacingly next to unsuspecting innocents. His talents are particularly notable but most of the characters are required to perform some act of acrobatic show. At one point, playing dead Robin hangs, for what seems like a dangerously long time, upside down, until I started to worry about all that blood rushing to his head.
The first half flew past and after temporarily losing my son in the interval (the layout of that theatre is confusing, isn’t it?) we were back and eagerly awaiting the second half.
The plot thickens as a victory for the outlaws seems impossible. A particularly nice touch, to my mind, is the mockery of religion that is doled out in the play, in contrast to the supreme power of nature as represented by the forest. Prince John, the archetypal villain, justifies himself always by references to God. ‘God intends her beauty for me’ he states when talking of his desire to capture Marion and marry her. When he finally meets her, he tells her, ‘You have God in your eyes’ but this clichéd reference is in stark contrast to Robin’s love for Marion. For Robin, he aspires to a marriage of equals and comments that ‘there was something ...in her eyes... like when you looked her in the eye, she’d look straight back’. Call me sentimental but the culmination of the play, of Robin finding his heart, is superbly touching. In response to the Duke of York’s, ‘Lead them to the altar’ Robin states, ‘But if I am to marry your daughter, the altar will not be made of marble and gold but of bark and branch.’ And the play ends with Robin and Marion in a stunning balletic pose being lifted up into the forest, spiraling around until they become entwined about each other, as the lights dim and the branches sparkle with fairy lights.
What a treat to get to do it all over again! And this time we were sitting, not in the upper gallery but in the stalls. Where before we saw the actors clambering about in the branches of the ‘tree’ now, on the ground, this lofty entertainment was hidden from us. But what we gained, being at ground level was a lot more of the nuances of the actors’ performances. We saw their expressions, we understood their jokes better and we had the thrill of them rushing past us each time they entered and exited the stage. Perhaps, though, on this one occasion the higher your seat, the better the entertainment. I would go again and try the circle next time! Take old people, take young people, go and see Robin Hood!
