Robin Hood Pantomime Script Spotlight
Rob from the rich, give to the funny!
Our Robin Hood pantomime script gets its hero out of the dungeon using the Sherwood Forest Girl Guides. Dame Wilma Scarlet runs the outlaw camp and coordinates the Guides with roughly equal exasperation, and by Act Two her contacts and her trolley of supplies are what the rescue actually runs on. Around her sits a Sheriff whose mother arrives mid-evil-planning bearing ham and pickle sandwiches, crusts removed, and a band of Merry Men comprising Little John, Big John, Medium John and Not John, whose name requires no further explanation. Later, Robin, Alan-a-Dale and Little John infiltrate the Guides’ camp in disguise, shortly followed by Bluff and Blunder doing exactly the same thing for entirely different reasons.
Synopsis
The Sheriff of Nottingham is taxing the people of Nottingham into the ground and enjoying every moment of it. Robin Hood has taken to the forest with his band of outlaws, robbing from the rich and distributing the proceeds, and is a constant thorn in the Sheriff’s side.
When the Sheriff announces an archery competition at the Nottingham Fayre, everyone knows it’s a trap. Robin Hood is going anyway. Maid Marian is fierce enough to handle whatever comes next, Dame Wilma Scarlet has the Girl Guides on standby, and the Sheriff’s mum has strong opinions about the whole business.
This script is an arrow-dynamic adventure from start to finish!
Straight from the Script
The Outlaws make their introductions:
Little John: I’m Little John.’
Big John: ‘I’m Big John.’
Medium John: ‘And I’m Not-as-big-as-Big-John-but-bigger-than-Little-John John.’
Wilma Scarlet: ‘Don’t worry, we just call him Medium John for short.’
Medium John: ‘But I’m not short!’
Casting Robin Hood: Who this script suits
15 principal characters and four supporting roles make Robin Hood one of our scripts for large casts, with one of the biggest Ensembles in the catalogue on top: townsfolk, outlaws, Girl Guides, archers, guards and ghosts all need bodies on stage. Friar Tuck, Alan-a-Dale, Eleanor Dale and Little John are principals in their own right, and Big John, Medium John and Not John account for three of the four supporting roles, so the named character work runs a long way down the cast list rather than stopping after the leads. The comedy is spread right across a big cast rather than concentrated in two or three parts, which is the whole reason to choose it if your company has grown. The forest setting also lends itself to an outdoor staging, if summer pantomime scripts are of interest.
Cast the four Johns for height before you cast them for anything else. Little John is short, Big John is tall, Medium John is written to sit visibly between the two, and Not John is simply not John, so the joke arrives on sight and dies quietly if all four are the same size. Dame Wilma Scarlet carries the call and response and the outlaw camp with it, and she introduces both in her opening Dame monologue, so she wants a performer who can hold an audience on their own. The Sheriff sings twice, once with the Ensemble at the top of Act Two and once alone, which is more singing than most panto villains are asked to do.
The Girl Guides are where a company with younger members should look first. They get a camp scene of their own in Act Two, a number led by Brown Owl and Snowy Owl, and a part in the rescue rather than a decorative role beside it.
Five full sets carry the show, Nottingham town centre, the outlaws’ camp, the Fayre, the castle dungeons and the Guide’ camp, with six front-cloth scenes falling between them and the interval covering the one change that has nothing in front of it. Only one sequence needs real rehearsal rather than real building, and that is the handcuff swap in Act Two, which runs between five characters and works only if the handcuffs come on and off easily.
If 15 principals appeals but casting 15 separate leads does not, our Snow White has the same principal count with seven of them as a single band of brothers. Those parts arrive as one block rather than as 15 individual decisions, which is a different problem to solve and an easier one for some companies.
Robin Hood Reviews
‘Absolutely loved this script. The Girl Guides are an inspired addition to this wonderful story!’
Barton AmDram
‘Your Robin Hood script is absolutely brilliant!’
Ucheldre Rep
Request your free Perusal Script
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