Script: Robin Hood

I'm sure we’ve all seen various versions of Robin Hood over the years, but I was excited and intrigued that a modern play version was available, with a female Robin at its helm. Yes! That's what we want – a gutsy, brave, gung-ho girl who saves the day.

Unfortunately, in Laura Dockrill's re-telling of this famous story, her ‘girly’ Robin Hood is not a good depiction of a modern heroine. In fact, she's not a very good version of a woman at all. She's pretty whingy, was a bully at school, (which she seems to brush off as an unimportant fact), and her band of ‘Merry Many’ dislike her immensely. Although she does redeem herself as the play goes on, as an audience member I'm not really rooting for her, which is where I think Dockrill has missed the point. Young impressionable minds want women to look up to, and this version of Robin is not someone they’d want to become.

The play is billed as family friendly and ‘laugh a minute’, but I found the style of the writing cringe-worthy and the jokes were truly awful!

I was also confused by the setting. This is a modern version, where phrases such as ‘innit boi!’ and the word ‘like’ are featured alongside references to Uber and glitter bombs, all of which makes its twenty-first century setting clearly apparent. The only problem is, it's also set in a wood, with the poor being taxed and gold coins being looted, which isn't modern at all. The worlds are mashed together with little success and I found myself wishing it would all come to an end.

I also have an issue with how a teacher would cast this show. The actors are supposed to be improvisers and musicians yet the only demographic that I think would possibly enjoy this is junior students and they certainly wouldn't be able to perform it. A sixth form production to a prep-school audience, at Christmas? That's the only way I could see this play working. And only just. Not my cup of tea at all.