– By Cate Marquis –
The Repertory Theater of St. Louis’ Mainstage final production of the 2024-2025 Season is high-spirited, comedic version of Robin Hood, “Ken Ludwig’s Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood,” on stage until April 13.
This charming production has a narrator, Friar Tuck (Michael James Reed), accompanied by a guitar-playing Troubadour (DeAnte Bryant), who introduces us to our story and continues occasionally throughout. Friar Tuck describes the story of Robin Hood as part myth, part history, which a tale which has evolved over the centuries. It is also a tale of fun and adventure, with Saxon commoners and dispossessed nobles rising up to defy oppressive Norman authority. In this case, the Sheriff of Nottingham (David Weynand), Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Matt Lytle), and Prince John (Eric Dean White), regent of England in the absence of his brother, King Richard the Lionhearted, who is off on the Crusades.
The play was written by Ken Ludwig, whose other works include the Tony-winning “Lend Me a Tenor.” The show is directed by Kate Bergstrom, the Rep’s Austin Family Artistic Director. Light-hearted fun is the general tone of this production, set in 1194 in the town of Nottingham and the nearby Sherwood Forest, yet the play opens on a tense scene. The Norman noble Sir Guy of Gisbourne (a delightfully villainous Matt Lytle) is preparing to hang the captured Saxon, Robin Hood (charming Louis Reyes McWilliams), aka Robin of Locksley. Freezing that scene, the story quickly flashes back to tell Robin’s origin story, beginning with his youth as the mischievous son of a Saxon nobleman, and his neighbor, young Marion (Jayne McLendon), although she is soon sent away by her father, perhaps to protect her from Robin’s rule-breaking influence.
When King Richard the Lionhearted goes off to the Crusades, Robin’s father goes with him, and England is left in the hands of Prince John, who quickly raises taxes and seizes Saxon property. Robin, now grown up to be a crack archer and swordsman, begins his adventures when he comes to the aid of a teenage girl, Deorwynn (Fabriola Cabera-Davila) and her father, who has been taken prisoner by Sir Guy for killing one of the King’s deer, to feed his family. Sir Guy escapes with his prisoner but Robin promises Deorwynn he will rescue her father and takes to the woods, where he embarks on a career of robbing rich Norman nobles and giving their riches to the poor.
The rollicking, winking fun play follows the familiar story, including favorite characters Friar Tuck and Little John (CB Brown), with their signature meetings with Robin Hood, a crack archer and swordsman, as they join his band of Merry Men. The Merry Men live their high-spirited life of freedom and fellowship in Sherwood Forest, harassing the rich who dare venture into those woods.
Now-grown Maid Marian returns from France, and although engaged to Sir Guy, she reconnects with her childhood friend Robin, although it takes awhile for her to see Robin Hood’s side of things. This version departs a bit from the familiar in making Marian both an accomplished archer herself but also a more independent woman. There is a damsel in distress, but it is young Deorwynn, whose father was taken by the evil Sheriff, although the teenager ultimately shows herself to more independent and resourceful than expected by the end.
The play also includes a new character who adds an extra dose of crazy fun, Alize, played with wild comic energy by Oriana Lada, who takes on a kaleidoscope of brief humorous roles.
The play is fun, immersive and honors its literary basis. The characters sport a variety of Northern English accents, with a touch of more or less Scottish, reflecting the story’s northern England setting, thanks to dialog coach Joanna Battles. The production makes full use of the theater space, with characters entering from down the theater aisles and audience members are brought into the action. The stage is dominated by a giant oak tree, deliberately made to look flat and drawn, like an illustration from a book, and the stage action takes place on a giant book that serves as a center stage platform, while pages of a medieval book script are the back drop. Scenic designers Lindsay Mummert and Courtney O’Neill have outdone themselves, and it is all completed with wonderful. colorful Medieval costumes, courtesy of Dottie Marshall Englis.
High-energy and a sense of fun and adventure fill this production. Filled with rollicking, winking fun, there are asides to the audience, a few double entendres but it is largely family-friendly adventure fun, in this tale of ordinary people thumbing their noses at the powerful, an enduring popular theme that has helped keep the legend alive. Mixing humor, adventure, a bit of romance, and its classic message of righting wrongs and the little guy standing up to the powerful, “Sherwood” gives us a delightful evening of classic myth and medieval color
“Sherwood” is on stage at The Repertory Theater of St. Louis’ in the Mainstage theater at the Loretto Hilton Theater in Webster Groves through Apr. 13.
© Cate Marquis
