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<b>by Caroline Smith, directed by Rob Torr, choreographed by Stephanie Graham
Torrent Productions, Royal Canadian Legion #001, 243 Coxwell Ave., Toronto
December 16-24, 2016
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“<i>Robin Hood</i> Is a Real Panto and a Real Treat for the Whole Family”
Ross Petty productions’ large-scale pantos are not the only pantos in town anymore. Other producers have joined the fray and the latest is Torrent Productions making its professional panto debut with <i>Robin Hood: A Merry Magical Pantomime</i>. The location in the auditorium of the Royal Canadian Legion at Coxwell and Gerrard may be humble. And so are the production values. But I can truthfully say that I have not had this much fun at a panto for a very long time.
One reason for <i>Robin Hood</i>’s success is its very unpretentiousness. Unlike the grandeur of the great expanses of Elgin Theatre, at the Legion you feel like you’re in the town hall of a small village where the resident theatre company has put together a show to entertain the locals. There’s a real warmth and sense of community about this show that simply can’t happen in a larger, more formal venue.
Even more important, though, the creative team of this <i>Robin Hood</i> is completely imbued with what an old-fashioned panto should be. Unlike other types of theatre, pantos are all about audience participation and they provides children the joyously vocal outlet of being able to judge and advise the adults on stage. Ross Petty’s pantos used to be like this, but gradually the amount of audience participation has dwindled to simply allowing the children to boo the villain. A real panto like Robin Hood offers far more opportunities for participation. What do you do when a wolf threatens Maid Marion, who is blissfully unaware of its presence. Why you shout out, “He’s behind you!” You may boo the villain but what do you do when the hero appears just in time to save somebody. Why you shout, “Yay!” When the comic sidekick says, “Hello, boys and girls. My name is Pinch”, you say “Hello, Pinch!”
My favourite is when a character asks the audience what to do as when Maid Marion asks if she should go to the evil Sheriff of Nottingham’s castle, to which, of course, everybody shouts out, “No!” This <i>Robin Hood</i> has the time-honoured wild chase scene through the audience accompanied by “Yakety Sax” and even has an audience sing-along. Thus, this <i>Robin Hood</i> wonderfully preserves all these forms of interaction that have mysteriously died out in the city’s biggest panto.
As if that were not reason enough to see <i>Robin Hood</i>, Caroline Smith’s script is extremely funny. She realizes exactly what panto dialogue should sound like and has thus filled it to overflowing an abundance of seriously bad puns, ancient jokes and mild sexual innuendo surrounding the show’s dame Nurse Tickle. The Sheriff of Nottingham is even given to communicating in knock-knock jokes.
All of this works so well because director Rob Torr knows how to achieve exactly the right tone of mock-seriousness and self-awareness. The characters in a panto have to act as if the plot is important even though it obviously is not. At the same time they all are aware that they are in a show they are performing in front of an audience. Much as people may think that pantos are easy, maintaining this tone is actually very difficult to do.
In <i>Robin Hood</i>, Torr is blessed with a cast who completely understand the genre and its style. As the narrator Fred the Fairy, who speaks in rhyming couplets, Sacha Stewart is a genial presence equally adept at acting, singing and dancing. Al Braatz who plays the title character exudes the unfailingly good nature of a storybook hero. He also gives a fine account of The Monkees’ “I’m A Believer”. He must be one of the few panto heroes in Toronto who has actually made a study of the genre in the UK, but there is nothing bookish about his fresh, natural performance.
Cynthia Hicks is a delightful Maid Marian. Caroline Smith has thought of a simple way of making Marion more than a damsel in distress by including a scene where both she and Robin fend off frightening forest creatures. As the evil Sheriff of Nottingham, Greg Campbell revels in a heavy British accent and repeatedly rolled Rs.
Stuart Dowling’s Nurse Tickle, Maid Marion’s guardian, is probably the funniest pantomime dame this side of Dan Chameroy’s Plumbum. Vying in height and heft with the tallest member of the cast, Dowling derives immense humour from Tickle’s assumption that she is irresistibly attractive despite all evidence to the contrary. Dowling has the pipes and panache for a gutsy rendition of Con Conrad’s “You’ve Got To See Mama Ev’ry Night” and his strip-tease down to her slip and petticoat as Tickle readies herself for bed is hilarious.
Ryan Brown, who solicits the most interaction from the kids as the comic traveller Pinch does an excellent job of making Pinch’s dimwittedness funny, even though Pinch does not even know whose side he’s really on. Adding to the comedy is Luc Trottier as Friar Tuck, who is forever munching on goodies that help advertise local sponsors, and Kevin Aichele as the tall, deep-voiced Little John.
Cameron Francis and Matthew Pinkerton play many roles besides the “merry men” Allan A. Dale and Will Scarlet, but one of the big surprises of the show is when the two suddenly break out into a high speed tap dance routine.
Noah MacDougall on keyboards and Robin Claxton on percussion provide the lively musical accompaniment that, as usual in a panto, ranges far and wide – here from pseudo-18th century harpsichord music to Deniece Williams’s “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” (1984). The balance does need to be adjusted so that the singers can be better heard over the band.
Before the show began I was sitting near seven-year-old William, who was busy playing a video game on his phone. “How would he respond to live theatre”, I wondered. I had no need to worry. Once the action began he was held spellbound gleefully booing the Sheriff, cheering on Robin and doubled over in stitches at the jokes. When the chase around the audience whizzed past him, he couldn’t help shouting out loud, “This is amazing!”
I’m sure that William wasn’t the only child to have such a joyous reaction to his first live theatre experience. Torrent Productions hopes to stage its pantos annually. Since they clearly know better than anyone around what the form is all about, they deserve the fullest success. I can’t wait to see their show next year.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a <i>Stage Door</i> exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Cynthia Hicks as Maid Marian and Al Braatz as Robin Hood; The Cast of <i>Robin Hood</i>. ©2016 Joanna Akyol.
For tickets, visit <a href="http://www.torrentproductions.com">www.torrentproductions.com</a>.
<b>2016-12-17</b>
<b>Robin Hood: A Merry Magical Pantomime</b>