There’s something different about going to see a Windmill show. Something new. If you are a regular theatregoer in Adelaide you get used to seeing the same people. The reliable enthusiasts dutifully wait in the foyer, tickets in hand. But when Windmill plays there’s an auditorium full of new faces. Teenagers who usually pack the cinemas on a Friday night instead pour into the space theatre. The sign outside has a sticker slapped across it “SOLD OUT.”
After setting the bar high with their sensational modern retelling of The Wizard of Oz, director Rosemary Myers and her creative team locked their sights on adapting another piece of folklore gold, the epic tale of Robin Hood. Just as the musical Wicked failed to dissuade them last year, the shadow of gladiator Russell Crowe did nothing to temper their enthusiasm this time round. The company’s creative energy and commitment to contemporary reinvention was evident in this new show.

Sexily renamed Fugitive kicked off the outlaw’s tale with deceptive quietness as a young child played solitary games on stage. His (or, as it so happens, her) mother joined her to share in a gentle moment… spectacularly broken by the arrival of an Imperial Stormtrooper, barrelling through the wall and heralding mayhem. Yes, that’s right. A Stormtrooper ™. One hopes Lucasfilm approved of this or else the force had better be strong with Myers and Co.

From this dramatic and odd beginning we were introduced to Robin (Eamon Farren), Marion Maid (Louisa Mignone) and Wil (Matthew Whittet – also the writer). We barely got to know our trio of heroes when they were off sprinting, riding and surfing away from those pesky Stormtrooper ‘knights’, who appeared to have abandoned enforcing law and order for acts of random and senseless violence. In the original story unpaid taxes became the motive for the Sheriff’s men. Here they just kidnapped, kicked and – disturbingly – killed children for the sake of it.

Robin, Marion and Wil collided, quite literally, with Little John (Patrick Graham) and (after making several jibes about John’s weight) assimilated him into their more manic than merry band. One of the holes in the production quickly became apparent. Things moved at such a frenzied, unrelenting pace that we just never got to know the main characters.

Eamon Farren displayed bundles of charisma and a strong stage presence but the Robin of this play was so brash, so venomous and so consistently brutal that we weren’t sure we even wanted to get to know him. Mercilessness appeared to be Robin’s strongest characteristic throughout the play and though we hoped that he might forge a loving bond with Marion, reconcile with Wil and develop into a true hero by journey’s end, Fugitive’s Robin never quite got there. When he wasn’t beating on every extra within range he was raising his fists to Marion. Not that Marion needed to fear. As played by Louisa Mignone, Marion Maid (not Maid Marion) was the toughest cookie in the jar. Emma Peel meets Sarah Connor. She matched Farren’s rage and gave as good as she got. With Robin yelling and smashing heads you could hardly blame Marion for being torn between her moody lover and the lovably goofy Wil. The romantic triangle between the trio was a clever addition to the tale but here again so much was left unexplored. Just why exactly did Robin run off and leave his maid behind? Was he off to fight the crusades? Off to destroy the Death Star?

At one stage Marion revealed that in the past she may have been pregnant, presumably to Robin though the play also left that ambiguous. When we reached the finale nothing was settled between the three leads. It may have been a deliberate, playful tease to leave the tensions unresolved in this way but for the audience it was a little unsatisfying.
Whittet’s Wil weathered the journey best. He was the most sympathetic character we met and struck a good balance between nerdish exterior and honourable core.

Graham’s Little John, the fourth wheel, was anarchic, aggressive and at times just plain nuts. We were never sure why Robin kept this loose cannon around but he scored most of the belly laughs and his fetish for whipped cream was a piece of inspired dialogue.

Other promising characters made strong debuts but were never seen again. A drunken Friar Tuck reversed the letters of his (or, once again, her) first and last names to comic effect, a popular gag at the former Night Train theatre restaurant, and Geoff Revell was a hoot riding what appeared to be a stuffed stallion as the sagacious Good Knight. It’s a pity we saw so little of this entertaining wise man and his slightly lopsided helmet.

Enter the villains. Former Wicked Witch of the West Revell proved he could be evil without the dress as Guy, a deadly and dapper assassin who seemed to have wandered out of a 1970’s swingers’ party to kidnap an unsuspecting Marion. Her ninja skills proved to be no match for his deadly dance moves. As Guy Revell had the oily charm of Clark Gable with a dash of Alan Rickman menace. He’s always terrific when he’s bad. Combining Revell’s sleazy Guy with Carmel Johnson’s hyperactive, fur-clad, Goth mamma Sheriff gave the play an injection of fun just when the goodies were beginning to get angsty and tiresome. Unfortunately Revell and Johnson didn’t get to bounce witty lines back and forth for long. When it appeared Johnson, microphone in hand, was about to let rip and sing us a show stopping number to really take her character to that next level, a pint-sized King Richard (Danielle Catanzariti) arrived and rather cruelly dispatched the baddies with what could only be Darth Vader’s force choke manoeuvrer. The narrative really jumped the shark at this point.

With the King’s return (where was he?) presumably the Stormtroopers fell back into line and there was a happily ever after, though I wouldn’t trust that shifty king any more than I’d trust that angry Robin. All of a sudden and for no clear reason, Marion forgave ‘dickhead’ Robin for both abandoning her with child and threatening to beat her, and Wil probably – hopefully – went off to find himself a much healthier and more stable relationship far away from Sherwood Forest, or wherever the story was set.

The play held a lot of promise and much of the dialogue was sharp but with threads left dangling, emotional journeys unresolved and character motivations unclear Fugitive didn’t match the strong storytelling that underpinned The Wizard of Oz. Some of the gags were cheap and pitching below a teenage audience. This stage time could have been used to tell us more about the characters and their relationships.

From a technical perspective the production had a tendency to assault the senses just a little too much. Some audience members threw their hands over their ears as sirens whirled, battles raged and other not entirely necessary bangs and crashes pounded eardrums to remind us all that this was a youthful and edgy production.

The set design made good use of the confines of the space theatre with unexpected sliding door entrances and a window for the Sherriff to bark orders to her underlings Dr. Claw style. The lack of substantial set changes provided the actors with opportunities to engage the audience’s imagination through mine and slapstick but became static towards the end when it would have been nice to see some of the Sherriff’s darker world.

Despite its plot holes and quantum leaps in logic Fugitive was an engaging production and a fun night out, bold in its ideas. Windmill should be commended for investing in new writing. Overall the show was another example of the company pushing the limits of what can be done on stage whilst successfully enticing a new generation to the theatre. Special mention must go to Danielle Catanzariti who, besides making an appearance as King Richard, narrated the tale as the ghostly Much Jr and tied the scenes together with confidence and flair.

I look forward to seeing what this exciting company does next!

Alex Vickery Howe

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