Unlike Babes in the Wood, the story of Robin Hood is not quite a fairy tale but more of a folk tale depicting a skilled archer that robs the rich to give to the poor. FM Theatre productions took these two well-known tales as the main basis for this year’s Manoel Theatre panto and transferred the scene to a fictionalised local village called Hawn Mawn Xejn.

The village is currently ruled by the evil Queen Pif Scriha, while her brother the benevolent king Richard is away fighting in the Crusades. Her lady-in-waiting, Maid Marian, is in love with the outlaw Robin Hood, who leads his Merry Men based in the Kennedy Grove Forest against the evil Queen. Meanwhile, Bambolina is the nurse in charge of the two babes and heirs to the throne.

Maxine Aquilina is blessed with good looks and heaps of confidence and she played Robin Hood as a charming, albeit pretty useless, hero opposite Sarah Mercieca’s more resourceful Maid Marian. The band of Merry Men were a motley crew, made up primarily of the diminutive Big Qilla (Renato Dimech) , a very camp Little John (Marco Calleja Vassallo) and a gluttonous Friar Tuck (Franco Sciberras).

Edward Mercieca as Nurse Bambolina.Edward Mercieca as Nurse Bambolina.

Edward Mercieca not only played the dame Nurse Bambolina, but also penned the script. As usual, he totally inhabited the role and his big frame gave his character a larger-than-life quality, straight out of a John Walters movie. The script was clear in the development of the narrative and contained enough Christmas cracker jokes to keep the audience entertained throughout although I felt that it provided the actors with limited opportunity for impromptu interaction with the audience and somewhat thin on the political satire front.

The script pitted Robin Hood against two baddies in the form of Queen Pif Scriha (Tiziana Calleja) and her dogsbody, the Sherrif of Hawn Mawn Xejn (Stephen Oliver). Oliver is fast becoming a household name on the local stage, not only for his accomplished stage direction (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Festen, Butterflies are Free) but also for his on-stage appearances (Noises Off, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). His Sherrif was a delicious blend of comic-book villain and hen-pecked husband. His was also the character that interacted best with the audience and brought about the strongest audience reaction. I found his hilarious misquoting of lines from Shakespeare extremely funny, even his fumbled lines from Freddie Portelli’s Mur Hallini.

Contained enough Christmas cracker jokes to keep the audience entertained throughout

Calleja’s evil Queen on the other hand, remained unrepentant till the end. With her regular lapses into Maltese her character perfectly contrasted Oliver’s very British Sherrif. To carry out her wicked orders the Queen had Marelli and Madoffi, two henchpersons played by the young but very talented Lisa Mifsud and Michela Farrugia. Their energetic acting unfortunately sometimes got in the way of their vocal delivery making it difficult to understand some of their lines.

Antonella Mifsoode made the most of her ever-growing experience of working in children’s theatre with her role as the narrator Alana Dale a ‘wondering’ minstrel that evoked the spirit of Harlequin and the roots of the panto tradition in the Commedia dell’Arte.

Mifsoode has a very strong stage presence and she not only managed to keep the narrative flowing smoothly but also created a very amiable character to which the audience (particularly the children) could warm up to.

It’s a pity that the script provided her with what probably ranks as the lamest call-and-response in local panto history.

No panto would be complete without the obligatory fairy and the fairy in this production was wonderfully played by a newcomer to the local stage.

Dutch actress Victoria Hubers was perfectly cast as Fairy Hollandaise. Lapsing frequently into her native language she made the character both lovable and memorable. I hope we will be able to see more of her on the local stage.

Louie Noir’s costume designs added great colour to the simple but very effective stage design courtesy of Marco Bartolo. Together with Chris Gatt’s effective lighting design, the various design elements made this panto one of the most visually striking pantos I have witnessed on the Manoel stage. I was also particularly impressed with the brilliant stagecraft of the archery contest that worked magically.

Some of the best scenes of this panto were the musical numbers involving the chorus with a very talented (and at times very young) group of actors that moved and sang like seasoned pros. Backed by Kris Spiteri’s strong musical direction and enhanced by pit singers Justin Mamo and Francesca Aquilina I was impressed with the general quality of the chorus scenes. This was a very enjoyable panto that served as a testament to the ongoing appeal of this tradition on our stage.

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