BOYS IN THE HOOD

OUR man in Lincoln Green has been played by the disparate likes of Errol Flynn and Kevin Costner. There was Mel Brooks's spoof film and even an ill-fated attempt to turn Robin Hood into a stage musical, Lionel Bart's cringeingly titled Twang!

But this family-friendly version by David Wood with Dave and Toni Arthur, from 1981, goes for authenticity, steeping the tale in folklore and the wandering minstrel balladry that carried Robin's legend around the country before the invention of the printing press committed it to paper.

It's the May Day holiday, when young girls divine their future husband in an ash leaf and the King of the May gets to play the philanthropic archer as the stories of Robin and his merry men are acted out by revelling local labourers.

So not much in the way of camp swash and buckle (although a great deal of stage combat, keeping fight director Malcolm Ranson pretty busy) and no men in tights knowingly slapping thighs la Brooks.

But while Wood has sought to avoid the panto tradition, there are still elements of the genre.

The tale of Friar Tuck (a lustily voiced Gareth Davies) carrying Guy Michael's all-round good egg Robin back and forth through a river for payment of a mislaid pie is set-piece shtick; there's a villain to hiss in Rob Layton's Sheriff (more Terry Thomas than Alan Rickman), and even a hint of slapstick.

The overall mood, though, is a gentle one, and with the cheerful execution of morris and sword dancing and song that is simply wistful or rousing, the show offers a very real sense of our English roots at a time when our indigenous culture is in danger of being smothered by globalisation.

Director Hilary Strong could make her production flow more easily with slicker scene changes, but the lack of over-sophistication is its charm.

Praise, too, for Greenwich's Gifted and Talented Fund, that finances shows where half the cast are recent drama-school graduates and the rest are promising 16- to 19-year-olds from local schools in less advantaged parts of the borough. The spirit of Robin Hood lives on.

_ Until 24 August. Box office: 020 8858 7755.

Copyright 2002
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