England 1215, the rich are getting richer, the poor struggle to survive. The leaders barricade themselves in their castles, oblivious to the rising clamour for change. Out of the forest comes a champion for the downtrodden, a voice for the powerless, a new hope. Ophaboom brings the heroic legend bang up-to-date with their unique brand of knockabout comedy and political satire. This acclaimed half-masked ensemble steals from the past to give a new perspective on the present.

Director Designer Mask Designer Costume Designer Cast

Howard Gayton Janet Bird / Catherine Lindow Ninnian Kinnear-Wilson Jennifer Gayton Geoff Beale Howard Gayton Claire Jones Sarah Ratheram

Click to jump to one of the sections below:

• TimeOut London review
• Whats On In London review
• British Theatre Guide review
• London Evening Standard review
• London Times review
• Programme note from director Howard Gayton
• Programme note from musical director Sarah Ratheram

TimeOut London review
Riverside Studios, December 2002
This criminally insane comedy comes to everyone aged seven or older from Ophaboom, an apparently unique British Commedia Dell'arte company. It delivers the Robin Hood legend in rough, but concentrated style, turning every character into a cartoon goody, baddy, hero or damsel and getting the audience involved throughout. For those young people who enjoy a measure of irony and topicality with their knockabout comedy, this is a laugh-a-minute.

The company of four wear half masks, the essential tights, tabards and robes, and strike exaggerated poses against a naively painted backdrop. The evil sheriffs mask has a long, fastidiously flared nose; Friar Tuck, roundly filling out a brownhabit, sports a bear-like mask, similar to the piggy ones donned by the actors when they play the incredibly dim Sheriffs guards. Maid Marion, responding prettily to the dashing Robin of Loxley, pulls arch faces under her dainty mask.

The quartet, directed by Ophaboom's co-founder Howard Gayton, never stop their flourishing, posing, expostulating, costume-changing, rushing around the auditorium and indulging in flouncingly choreographed stage fights using staffs and swords and elaborate falling-over techniques. It looks exhausting. They occasionally break into olde English and French medieval folk songs, harmonising sweetly before diving back into the rollicking story.

My 13-year-old companion was gratifyingly enchanted by Ophaboom's daffiness. At a time of year when top billing in pantomimes everywhere is dependent on an actor being a familiar face offthe telly, it's good to see talented performers resolutely keeping theirs hidden, but engaging an audience all the same. - Ronnie Haydon

Whats On In London review
Riverside Studios, December 2002
Waiting in the auditorium before modern-day commedia dell'arte company Ophaboom's latest show, you may well feel apprehensive at the sight of the austere set of pleasantly painted, if faintly old-fashioned flats depicting a wood on one side and a castle on the other. Ideal for outside performances while busking on tour, no doubt -but where are the high-tech video installations you now expect of alternative Xmas shows in the 21st century (especially at the funky Riverside)? You might also wonder if you're in for an evening of quaint museum theatre as you first glimpse the 'olde worlde' masks and costumes. You're therefore totally unprepared for what's to come as a ridiculously talented cast of four -yes, a mere four performers -launch into one of the cleverest, paciest, most technically accomplished and screamingly funny versions of the Robin Hood legend you could ever hope to see.

Furthermore, between the meticulous commedia clowning - and groaning puns -a savage streak of anti-globalisation, environmentalist indignation provides the show with a real edge.

Ophaboom co-founder Geoff Beale's hilariously Olivier-esque Robin is a fonner townie who finds his heart in the forest of Sherwood -both in terms of his calling to rob the rich and feed the poor and his blossoming affair with Claire Jones's energetically daft Maid Marion. The same is also true of Sarah Ratheram's fabulously porcine Friar Tuck, in cahoots with Howard Gayton's suavely wicked Sheriff until the power of nature makes him see the error of his ways. In a nice little twist to the story, this Tuck only became a friar through lovesickness -and Ratheram's fantasies of his lost beloved provide tihe show with some wonderful opportunities for (undaunting) audience participation.

The cast quickly had the whole, largely teenage audience in their palm of their hands for much of the show I attended (the often cruel, Loony Tuneish slapstick will doubtless delight younger audiences as well). Under such circumstances, they could have easily injected proceedings with occasional moments of seriousness that would have given their political message more weight (even with a rather odd episode involving the god Pan). Still, the company managed to cut seamlessly from zany antics to beautiful a cappella singing of folksy medieval songs without a hint of a snigger from the teenagers. One of many sublime touches in this wonderful seasonal offering. * * * * * Oliver Jones

British Theatre Guide review
Riverside Studios, December 2002
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London Evening Standard review
Riverside Studios, November 2002
Those who like their theatre loud, preferably with lots of screeching and animal noises thrown in for good measure, will be in raptures over Ophaboom's new, distinctly tongue-in-cheek, take on the Robin Hood legend. Those of a more sedate nature will need longer to acclimatise to the mayhem going on all around them, but will almost certainly be worn down in the end by the relentless energy of this four-strong company. Fiona Mountford

The London Times
Riverside Studios, December 2002
Robin Hood at the Riverside Studios hurls the slings and arrows of outrageous comedy courtesy of Ophaboom, Britain's only dedicated commedia dell'arte troupe. So the actors are masked, the action is loud and the satire is topical. The four-strong company generate a winning warmth - Sarah Ratheram's Friar Tuck transforming an audience member with strands of hair into his lost love, Margery. Ian Johns

Creating The Show (by director Howard Gayton)
The process of creating our Robin Hood started with a period of training for the actors, two of whom are performing with Ophaboom for the first time. For this we secreted ourselves away in Selavy, a farmhouse in France. The training contained elements of Yoga, Win Chun Kung Fu, and Suzuki Method. We also drummed, played a lot of Hacky Sack, and ate good food.

The contact with nature that is present in Selavy, with its free-roaming animals and rustic surroundings, has always been an influence on our work. It had a renewed relevance with the themes of Robin Hood, providing inspiration for much of the show's content.

We begin rehearsals with the masks, an empty space and an old backdrop slung over a piece of rope. There is no set script, so the masks become our text. At first we explore the characters individually and then in relation to each other. Gradually the show emerges as we improvise and try out different ideas and themes.

It was clear to us early on that there were similarities between the world of the play and our own world. We first began planning Robin Hood around the time of the G8 summit in Genoa - a very contemporary example of leaders barricading themselves in fortresses and not listening to the voices of the people they are supposed to represent. The topics of discussion at the summit also recalled Robin's struggle against the environment being destroyed for the benefit of the wealthy. In our story, the hero returns to nature to find the strength to overthrow the tyranny that has overcome England.

Making Music (by Sarah Ratheram)
Music has always been an important part of each new Ophaboom show. It can set mood and is invaluable as a universal language that can speak volumes when we don't want to rely on text to tell the story, a vital consideration in our touring abroad.

For these reasons, the tunes we choose are more important than the lyrics, and we always aim to have a good balance between songs in English and those in other languages. The search for an Ophaboom song usually begins with identifying the desired musical style. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame this was a mixture of religious pomp and Gypsy music; for Robin Hood the first brief was for folksongs with a Medieval bent, in a variety of moods.

I like to use songs with a very strong basic tune - The Lark in the Morning suggested itself as a potential Pogues-style rowdy number; I Will Give My Love an Apple is a beautiful song of love and longing; Margot labourez les vignes is just ridiculously catchy. The wedding song is a beautiful tune whose original Eastern European lyrics defied every attempt of mine to find them - so I added some traditional French troubadour words instead.

This year we are blessed with a very musical cast, and so can rely more on instrumentals than in recent years. The instruments we bring in on each song depends on the feeling we want to convey - and on who is available to play and sing at any given moment!

The creation and first tour of Ophaboom's Robin Hood was supported by the Arts Council of England through a National Touring Programme grant.