CORPORATE & CONVENTION EVENTS
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Written by Barnaby Eaton-Jones
PERFORMANCE REPORT
First performed at ‘Legend 2004’, a convention celebrating the TV series ‘Robin of Sherwood’, this play got dusted off, cleaned up and polished until it shone brighter than before. In fact, with strict editing and new writing, about 50% of the play was brand new and original. OFFSTAGE has always made it a policy to never repeat ourselves but time constraints and factors beyond our control meant that we couldn’t get a 100% new script out in time, in order for rehearsals to begin when they were scheduled to.
Nearly every cast member from 2004 managed to return to the same roles (with a few even switching roles here and there). The only person we were missing from the original 15-string cast was Big Dave Clarke, who had played Little John, and was unable to commit. So, the search was on for another very tall and very muscular actor to fill those huge shoes. Luckily, we were blessed with a few contacts who nudged us in the direction of John Lomas, who turned out to not only be a great actor, but also a fantastic chap who seamlessly slotted into OFFSTAGE as if he’d been a part of it for years. During the intense rehearsal period, it was clear that the play was too long. Chopping out favourite bits was a painful surgery to perform (we lost a great re-working of ‘Let’s Do The Timewarp Again’ with appropriate new lyrics), but it just about saved the patient!
The convention was held at The Ye Olde Bell in Barnby Moor, near Nottingham. This hotel is one of England's oldest coaching inns, dating back to the 17th Century, and is. set in several acres of private landscaped grounds on the edge of Sherwood Forest. The ideal location for a ‘Robin of Sherwood’ convention!! The whole cast joined in with the convention itself, visiting the Great Oak Tree in Sherwood Forest (where it is alleged that Robin and his Merries lived), having a go at the Archery contest, and being entertained by Phil Rose (who played Friar Tuck).
We also met Richard Carpenter (writer/creator of ‘Robin of Sherwood’) and his wife Annabel Lee (who played Mad Mab in one episode), both were extremely lovey and charming. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stay for the evening entertainment, but requested a DVD recording of the play before wishing us luck. Nikolas Grace (who played the Sheriff) was his usual wickedly amusing self, and spent the first 30 minutes of the play backstage with us, keeping his taxi running. He even scampered around the front to watch some properly.before he had to be whisked off back to London. The convention audience seemed to enjoy it as much as two years ago, in a very hot room, all dressed in medieval costume, and trying to quietly eat a three-course meal as well. We retired to the bar afterwards, with a lot of the audience, to celebrate another successful spoof. The highlight of the evening was firing toy plastic arrows from a plastic bow at each other, as well as trying to force-feed extremely melted chocolate fudge cake to each other back in the Hotel rooms.
Again, everyone would like to thank Les, Sue & Peter for their amazing organisational skills in running the convention. We’d also like to thank the brilliant audience on Saturday night who got all the obscure references – however bizarre – in the play and who laughed in all the right places!!
THE
PLAYERS
(in order of first appearance)…
JAMES HAMBLETT
Herne The Hunter/Raven (& Skulley)
BARNABY EATON-JONES
Paul Knight/Sheriff of Nottingham/First Knight of Acre/Lord Owen of Clun/King
Arthur
FRANCIS MOLONEY
Camp Man/Third Knight of Acre/Ralph/Joshua De Talmont/Guard Chance/Gulnar/Old
Prisoner (& Arthur the Rat)
EMMA VOGWELL
Much The Miller’s Son/Sixth Knight of Acre/King Richard the Lionheart/Sir
Richard of Leaford/Hound of Lucifer
GARETH RICKETTS
Robin of Loxley/Guest Announcer/Guard Cunning/Philip Mark/Lord Edgar
CHARLIE OVERS
Guy of Gisbourne/Fourth Knight of Acre/Hound of Lucifer
DAVID RATTY
Will Scarlett/Abbot Hugo/Guard Luck
KATHRYN HOPKINS
Lady Marion of Leaford
CHRIS HOSLER
Baron De Belleme/Alan A’Dale/Bertrand De Nivelle/Edward of Wickham/King
John/Sarak/Adam Bell/Gulnar’s Man-Beast (the Robin Double)
JOHN LOMAS
Little John/Archery Announcer
IAN KUBIAK
Nasir/Arthur (the Pretender)/Grendel
SOPHIE JONES
Jennet of Elsdon/Fifth Knight of Acre/Mildred/Hound of Lucifer/Lady Margaret
of Gisburne/Mad Mab (& Rutterkin)
IAIN BARTON
Friar Tuck/Sergeant Jim De Bergerac/Kevin Costner (Prince of Thieves)/Earl
of Huntingdon/Terry Walsh/Guard
LIZ HOSLER
Second Knight of Acre/Meg of Wickham/Lilith/Isadora/Martin (Sheriff’s
Nephew)/Elena (Scarlett’s Wife)
KIM JONES
Seventh Knight of Acre/Morgwyn of Ravenscar/Robert of Huntingdon
Written by Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Produced & Directed by Kim Jones
Costumes: Fancy
Pants, Cotswold Costumes & Sue Hosler
Screen Painting: Emma Tyler, Liz Hosler & Kim Jones
Prop Designing & Constructing: Kim Jones
Rehearsal Space: The Royal William, Painswick
Original Title Sequence & Credits: Dave Price
Camera, Storyboard Edits & Direction: Kim Jones & Barnaby Eaton-Jones
New Title Sequence &Credits: Chris Hosler
CLICK HERE FOR REHEARSAL PHOTOS
CLICK HERE FOR DRESS REHEARSAL PHOTOS
CLICK HERE FOR PERFORMANCE PHOTOS
Written by Barnaby Eaton-Jones
PERFORMANCE REPORT
The ‘Robin of Sherwood’ TV series, which ran during the 1980s (starring Michael Praed and then Jason Connery), has a cult following to rival ‘Doctor Who’. So, when OFFSTAGE were asked to bring their talents of celebratory spoofery to the ‘LEGEND 2004’ convention, they didn’t think twice. Plus, it was a good excuse for Barnaby (the writer) to buy the Box-Set of DVDs. Ha. It was also a nice ‘full circle’ for OFFSTAGE as one of the organisers of the events was Les Hollis, who had given OFFSTAGE their first ‘break’ into the world of ‘Doctor Who’ conventions (see: ‘Déjà vu Of The Doctors’). They were performing in the middle of a medieval evening banquet. The performance space was a large wooden square of flooring surrounded by rows of banquet tables, with most of the attendees in full medieval costume. The room was lit by candlelight and decked out to look exactly like the inside of a Castle – with a huge fireplace, wall-hangings, shields and crests, and stone door frames. It was the sort of atmosphere that inspires a great performance and OFFSTAGE rose to the occasion.
‘Robbin’ The Legend’ ran through the entire 26-episode run, allotting an hour for Michael Praed’s tenure as Robin Hood and then another hour for Jason Connery’s handling of the role. It included 48 different costumes for 48 different characters, 2 crossbows, 3 quarterstaffs, 7 swords, 2 Wolf Masks, 1 Hobby Horse, a pair of ‘comedy’ Stag Antlers, a giant golden pentangle, 3 ornate drinking mugs, 1 Silver Marrow, a very bad Sean Connery impersonation, and lots lots more.
The play went down an absolute storm. From the very beginning, when the original writer – Richard Carpenter – begged his producer – Paul Knight – to repeat ‘Robin of Sherwood’ at once so he could claim some repeat fees (although this show has a huge following it has never been repeated since the original broadcast), the audience instantly saw where OFFSTAGE were going with it and went with them every step of the way. The laughter was long and loud. Even the special guests, actors Nickolas Grace (the Sheriff) and Phil Rose (Friar Tuck), were eager to pay tribute to OFFSTAGE after the performance. In fact, Nickolas Grace was supposed to leave at 9pm, after the Main Course and during the play’s Interval, but asked to stay on so that he could see the end of the play – high praise indeed!
Highlights from the first half included: the spoof Title Sequence of the Michael Praed era, the quarterstaff fight between Little John and Robin, Will Scarlett’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’ entrance, Nasir’s silent, wooden performance and quicker-than-the-human-eye sword-play, Jennet’s slow-motion poisoning from ‘The Witch of Elsdon’, Alan A’Dale’s rude rhyming scene, Friar Tuck’s interrupting of his own spoonerism, Gisburne’s “Throw down your arms!” speech, Herne’s stoned speech, the Sheriff’s fear of the Jewish Cabala book, Bertrand de Nivelle’s (actor Oliver Tobias in the series) entrance as a 1970s ‘Stud’, Baron de Belleme’s death scene, Lillith’s (‘The Enchantress’) manipulation of a possessed Robin with some gratuitous use of two Barbie dolls, Marion’s drunken punch, the Abbess of Ravenscar’s entrance to a re-working of ‘The Sound of Music’, and the Sheriff’s nasty ad-lib to an ‘ahhh’-ing crowd when Robin Hood is killed.
Highlights from the second half included: the new Robin’s quick-fire recruiting of the Merry Men, Will Scarlett’s drunken fight scene with Robin, Richard O’Brien’s character Gulnar’s entrance in full Crystal Maze mode, Lord Owen of Clun’s outrageous Welsh accent, the ‘I’m A Wolfshead’ song, Robin & Marion’s convoluted declaration of love for each other (“I know you know I know”), Raven’s mercenary sidekick Skulley as a hand-puppet, King Arthur’s appearance in the guise of Sean Connery, Sarak’s sword-fight with a faster-than-the-human-eye Nasir, Gisburne and Robin’s sword-fight over ‘Leper’s Soup’, the appearance of the Cromm Cruac goblin, Edward of Wickham’s likeness to Adam Bell and King John, Robin and Adam Bell’s mirror images, Mad Mab’s appearance with her favourite pig, Robin’s final “I’m NOT a girl!” strangulation of Grendel, the appearance of the exact replica of Robin Hood but with some awful fang-like teeth, Marion and Robin’s tearful farewell, and the appearance of the Old Prisoner with his pet rat, Arthur.
The cast of fifteen jumped between 48 characters with consummate ease, with a bit of frantic costume changing and a few different wigs and accents. The overwhelming applause at the end of the play called for an extra cast bow but, not wanting to milk the moment, OFFSTAGE preferred to be humble and stay hidden in their dressing room! All in all, the most stressful but, ultimately, the most rewarding production OFFSTAGE has done to date. The audience laughed, clapped and cheered – picking up on every joke (even when ‘out-takes’ from the original series were included). They even joined in the specially-devised Drinking Game during the play, which was…
The ‘ROBBIN’ THE LEGEND’ Drinking Game…
1.
Each time someone says: “Nothing is forgotten!”, take one sip.
2. When the Sheriff of Nottingham says: “Thirsty work, this!”,
take two sips.
3. Whenever Richard ‘Kip’ Carpenter is mentioned, take three sips.
4. When Will Scarlett nuts someone, take four sips.
5. When Much throws the sheep into the audience, whoever catches it has to
stand up and down their drink.
OFFSTAGE would like to thank the organisers and attendees of ‘LEGEND 2004’ for making it such a special event. They would also like to thank Ian Davis of ‘LAMIA TRADING’ for supplying some historically accurate costumes and weaponry, Sonia & Tom of ‘FANCY PANTS’ for costumes, Sue Hosler for costumes, ‘COTSWOLD COSTUMES’ for costumes also, Sue Matthews & Peter Grand for Knights Costumes, Jo Ellis for help with props, Carolyn Edwards for her superb poster design, and Dave Price for the spoof Title Sequence. But, mostly, OFFSTAGE owes a huge debt to Kim Jones for producing and directing the play (including costume making, rehearsal scheduling - and re-scheduling when our Michael Praed Robin was taken ill for a week and then our Sheriff was taken ill for two weeks, props making, the Bouncy Castle Day, endless trips to fetch, carry, and buy stuff, and all whilst trying to hold down a full-time job!).
The Players (in order of first appearance)…
JAMES
HAMBLETT
Herne The Hunter/Raven (& Skulley)
BARNABY EATON-JONES
Paul Knight/Sheriff of Nottingham/First Knight of Acre/Lord Owen of Clun/King
Arthur
LIZ HOSLER
Old Lady/Knight of Acre/Lilith/Isadora/Elena/Meg of Wickham
EMMA VOGWELL
Much The Miller’s Son/Knight of Acre/King Richard/Hound of Lucifer (The
Red Rider)
GARETH RICKETTS
Robin of Loxley/Philip Mark/Lord Edgar
CHARLIE OVERS
Guy of Gisburne/Knight of Acre/Sir Richard of Leaford
DAVID RATTY
Will Scarlett/Abbot Hugo
KATHRYN HOPKINS
Lady Marion of Leaford
CHRIS HOSLER
Baron de Belleme/Alan A’Dale/Bertrand de Nivelle/Edward of Wickham/King
John/Adam Bell/Gulnar’s Man-Beast (Robin’s Double)
DAVID CLARKE
Little John
SOPHIE JONES
Jennet of Elsdon/Mildred/Lady Margaret Gisburne/Mad Mab
IAN KUBIAK
Friar Tuck/Arthur (The Pretender)/Grendel
KIM JONES
Lone Knight of Acre/Morgwyn of Ravenscar/Robert of Huntingdon
IAIN BARTON
Knight of Acre/Terry Walsh/Guard/Prisoner With Rat
FRANCIS MOLONEY
Knight of Acre/Ralph/Hooded Man/Gulnar/Joshua de Talmont/Sarak/Martin
Written
by Barnaby Eaton-Jones, Produced & Directed by Kim
Jones
Title Sequence: Dave Price
Poster Design: Carolyn Edwards
Costumes: Fancy Pants, Cotswold Costumes, Lamia Trading & Sue
Hosler
| 'Doctor Who' - 2003 - to present |
During 2003-2007, OFFSTAGE were performing specially written productions for a number of Doctor Who conventions and events, all over the UK and in the USA. Details of these shows can be found by clicking here