Robin Hood and Shakespeare — XFest celebrates 10 years

Mack Godron as Robin is the only Equity actor in the cast.

A scene from The Shakespeare Show.

Mack Gordon as Robin Hood and Wyatt Pucha as Little John meet in the trees of Prince Charles Park ahead of the opening of XFest.

Kelsey Gilker and Andrew Cooper in The Shakespeare Show.

 Click to enlarge photos

XFEST

What: Performances of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and The Shakespeare Show

When: July 13-Aug. 1

Where: Prince Charles Park

Tickets: Adults, $25; student and seniors, $20; children 12 and under, $12. Available from Kamloops Live! Box Office.

By MIKE YOUDS

Robin Hood and his merry outlaws await audiences under the trees along with healthy dollops of humour, Shakespearean-style, to leaven the mix at XFest this summer.

The 10th annual festival in Prince Charles Park features a pair of Made in B.C. plays, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Jeff Pitcher’s retelling of the legend, and The Shakespeare Show, a comedy by Ryan Gladstone.

The two plays run in repertory from July 13-Aug. 1, offering evenings of fun and dramatic action for audiences of all ages.

“Part of the reason we picked The Shakespeare Show is because audiences loved The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged),” said Melissa Thomas, who directs the comedy. “I knew people who loved that would eat this up.”

Robin Hood, on the other hand, needs no introduction, except perhaps to the youngest of audiences, who will be enraptured with all kinds of excitement before them.

“Really, they bring something for everybody.”

With two ensemble sword fights in Robin Hood and tangling of rapiers in The Shakespeare Show, Xfest cast had to do some fast learning in rehearsal. All but one of the cast members are community players and none had experience with fight scenes, Thomas said. They held stop-by training sessions under the trees to ensure all goes safely and smoothly.

Bringing in only one Equity actor was a deliberate move, she added.

“What I want to do is give back in a way because the community has given me so much,” she said. As well, there are a lot of “great young performers coming out of Kamloops.”

Mack Gordon, who plays Robin, is the only import. The Vancouver actor returns to XFest after a five-year absence, having last played in Rocky Horror Show and Twelfth Night in 2010. His experience counts. He’s workshopped plays with Pitcher as well as with Gladstone.

Pitcher incorporates bits and pieces from all of the Robin Hood legends and uses artistic licence to create a fresh narrative, Gordon said.

“The real through-line is the adventures of people trying to bring various plans to fruition,” he said.

Plans clash, giving rise to plot conflicts and stage fighting as audiences familiar with Sherwood Forest would expect. Along with the swashbuckling drama and romance, of course, there are the classic themes of the legend — good versus evil, loyalty, taking from the rich, etc.

“I think that, definitely, Jeff has some messages for modern audiences,” Gordon said. “It’s about charity, institutions and the importance of holding government bodies responsible for their actions.”

He draws a parallel between the medieval lords of Robin Hood, the vast disparity between social classes in the Middle Ages, and that which exists today.

“They’re kind of the One Percent in this play.”

Gladstone’s comedy centres around the serious academic debate over Shakespeare’s identity. Was he indeed the poor, illiterate son of a glover, the hand who tended the horses, or was he the well-educated Earl of Oxford using a nom de plume? Academic in its underlying theme, but not at all in style it seems.

“It’s very comedic, very fast-paced and very much into switching of characters,” said Andrew Cooper, who plays opposite Kelsey Gilker, the cross-dressing Oxford.

“It’s a two-hander and we play 14 or 15 characters each, so it’s a bit wacky,” explained Gilker.

Wackiness, though, is what Xfest audiences appreciate as demonstrated by the runaway success of The Compleat Wrks (in which some of the cast literally ran away, down the street) in 2011.

“We take on just as many characters,” said Andrew Cooper, who plays opposite Gilker.

“So many characters, so many changes,” that they hardly leave the stage.

“He’s playing with the pentameter Shakespeare used but it’s super easy to understand,” Gilker said.

“If you’re familiar with the stories, you’ll pick it up a lot of references. If you know the story a little, you’ll still pick it up.” Even those who are new to the stories can enjoy the drama.

Both have played at XFest before.

“XFest I really like because it’s outside and has a different energy to it. Here, it’s all exposed, so it really challenges us. I feel it’s more honest with audiences.”

Like the rest of the team behind The Shakespeare Show, they’re TRU Actors Workshop alumni, who have spearheaded XFest since its origins more than a decade ago.

As for the theory that Shakespeare was a mask for a mysterious author of some nobility, that is left to the audience to ponder.

“I think it’s a valid argument and a lot of Shakespearean experts believe it,” Cooper said.

Unfortunately, none of Oxford’s plays survived to shed light on the mystery, he added.

In all, this year’s mix makes for a compelling program. Ten years on, what began as a daring project to bring a Shakespearean summer festival to town now appears permanently rooted in the park.

“We certainly feel that the community has responded and said that we’re part of the fabric,” Thomas said.