AT LEAST 800 theatre-goers from Coonamble, Gulargambone, Armatree and beyond were thoroughly entertained by ‘Robin the Hood’, which ran over an intense four-night season from Tuesday 30 July to Saturday 3 August.
The performances were held at the Coonamble Plaza Theatre, and the production was officially dedicated to the late owner, Chris Gray who passed away unexpectedly on 15 April just a few short weeks after rehearsals commenced.
The current members of Coonamble Amateur Theatre Society (CATS) spent months organising the production, including costuming, choreography, set design, and of course learning lines.
Robin the Hood is a parody of the original Robin Hood tale, in which Robin must rescue his beloved Maid Marian from the clutches of Evil King John and his lackey the Sheriff of Snottingham.
As promised there were multiple men in tights and more laughs than you could poke an arrow at.
The CATS interpretation of Robin the Hood was directed by Katrina Lefebvre (Town Crier) backed up by Producers Lorna Lefebvre (Lady Bowler) and Elyse Church (lead Greenie) with all three juggling their various roles with their organisational duties.
Andrew Fisher starred as Robin Hood, an enthusiastic crowd-pleasing swash-buckler in mint tights which had at least half the audience wriggling uncomfortably in their seats.
His match was a stellar Kaelyn Ward as the speech-impaired and eminently pliable Maid Marion besotted with her Wobin.
Josh Borowoski concocted a distinctive villain with a monstrous snout and a mid-west American drawl as the Evil Sheriff of Snottingham. His portrayal carried hints of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Carribean) and Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday (Tombstone) and he was a great foil for veteran Hugh (not Grant, not Jackman) Beveridge.
Hugh’s spicy version of Bad King John was both naughty and … naughtier. With a salt and pepper beard cultivated for the occasion he looked not unlike a youngish Billy Connolly but on occasion behaved disturbingly like Benny Hill as he pelvic-thrusted his way through the scenes wherever his Queen (and the true boss) Rebecca McIntyre was absent.
McIntyre owned the Queen persona in the same way Siobhan Fagan inhabited her character of Marlene the Sorceress – boldly.
Mim McKeown secured her spot in the ranks of powerful female leads in her role as a bedazzled Fairy and knocked the socks off the audience with her rendition of ‘I Put a Spell on You.’
Crowd favourite Matthew Cock donned long curly brown locks to leap around as Little John before putting the fear of eye-damage into the front rows as past-it-marksman William Tell.
Emily Ryan confidently carried off her (male) part as another of Robin’s gang Allan A’Dale and later switched genders to become the sweet Clien Tell, William’s daughter.
Newcomer Mark Mudford from Collie joined the Merry Men as an Irish Friar Tuck and on Saturday night was stunned as his Irish accent unexpectedly echoed back at him from a theatre-ful of thoroughly engaged audience – Aye!
He and the increasingly adventurous James Nalder (Will Scarlett) also appeared as Batman and Robin (as in the Boy Wonder) in a random scene that brought with it a new level of dance moves and serious questions about James’ voice box.
Some confident CATS stalwarts stole a couple of scenes – Tanya Farrell (Bluebell the Greenie), Kerryn Ryan (Prunella the slow-learner of the Lady Bowlers) and the wild-eyed and artificially-enhanced Lady Bowler, Susan Campbell.
This year’s production again unveiled some sparkling new talent amid the Greenies in the form of Felicity Hill as Rose and Maddi Ward as Lily and introduced Angela Yates as a scarily-convincing Gertie, one of the elderly Lady Bowlers.
Elle Hanigan and Eliza Walters dipped their pinky toes into the water in this year’s production as the horn-tooting Royal Trumpeters.
And then there was Phil.
Phil Gray bravely stepped into the limelight as the rightful King of England, Good King Richard – in fishnet stockings.
Buoyed by memories of his late brother Chris’ fearless foray into tutus, tights, lipstick and lashes – and not a little dutch courage.
Phil might regret some aspects of his entry into the theatrical realm but there are expectations that he will become a CATS fixture.
The opening night of the production was a kid-friendly rendering of the story, free of the inappropriate jokes and instead replaced with jokes about their school, teachers, and other child-friendly topics.
The gloves were off for the adults-only Wednesday to Saturday performances with the raunchy references and barely-disguised ‘bad dad’ jokes met with rapturous applause and laughter throughout.
The production embraced many aspects of traditional pantomime and the crowds got louder as the week progressed. Many people were spotted filming their loved ones who had been lovingly selected to be publicly humiliated in the audience participation sections.
The cast and crew also seemed to enjoy this production, aside from a few bumps, scrapes and self-inflicted headaches along the way.
Another triumph for Katrina and the CATS.
