This
review was originally written for artsHub.
Back in 2002, my
parents took twelve-year-old me to see The
Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at the Glen Street
Theatre. It was my first introduction to Shakespeare and while I might not have
understood every joke or (palpable) hit at the Bard, I enjoyed it immensely and
try to see each subsequent production of it, to remind myself of the joy in
getting so caught up in something it changes the way you think. This
production, at the Genesian
Theatre in Sydney’s CBD, is the fifth production I’ve seen of this play, and
it is every bit as silly and as enjoyable as it was thirteen years ago; as it
has always been.
I grew up with the
Robin Hood story (frankly, which kid didn’t?). I love its big epic tale of
heroics and bravery, courage, action, romance and the ending which is only
really the beginning. And it’s not hard to see why it’s such a good story, why
it has lasted so long. It’s one of those stories which is both extremely simple
and complex at the same time, a kind of two-way mirror or a kind of
kaleidoscope that twists and magnifies the more you look at it. It’s about
brigands and outlaws fighting injustice; it’s about social injustice and
looking after the people who’ve fallen through the cracks in society for one
reason or another; it’s about fighting for the underdog and standing up to
those in charge, asking people ‘will you tolerate this?’ Yet, it’s a Romance,
in the tradition of the quest stories from antiquity, the same essential story
as that of King Arthur, another greatly mythologised figure.
Matthew Whittet’s Fugitive, playing at the Adelaide Festival as part of Windmill Theatre’s trilogy
of rites-of-passage stories, is a comic-book fantasy hip-hop romp through a
near-future dystopia. “The leaders have disappeared,” we are told. “It’s every
man for himself. In the fog of his urban chaos, a young man returns. A guy with
strange power and a backpack of destruction.” His name, like that of his
legendary counterpart, is Robin. And he’s here to help.
