It’s a carefree life in Sherwood Forest with nothing to do all day but sit about, toasting marshmallows and having a jolly sing-song round the campfire, and with nothing to worry about but what Willie Eck, who’s nipped into Nottingham to get the shopping, is going to bring back for supper. But the Merry Men are starting to find sleeping rough a tad too uncomfortable, Friar Tuck is just a shadow of his former self and some of them are even starting to question just where all the robbin’ from the rich has got to!

No wonder they’re ready to be diverted when young Tom Foolery turns up, eager to join their merry band and knock them all into shape. They’d be even more diverted if they realised he was really a young maiden dressed up as a man!

For Maid Marion has run away from Nottingham in search of adventure – though it rather cramps the style when you’ve got your old Nurse in tow. Especially when Nurse is very much in the mould of Queen Elizabeth’s Nursie from Blackadder, seasoned with a touch of Marvin the Paranoid Android. Half a dozen degrees in brain surgery and they want her to plaster a few cuts and bruises? I ask you!

Marion wants to escape the clutches of the evil Sheriff of Nottingham, and boy is this Sheriff evil! He’s so utterly,  thoroughly, down-right, out-and-out, bone-grindingly evil he’d make Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham look like a pussy-cat. And he’s got nothing on his bodyguards, the Naughty Norman Knights. Played by the junior troupe, there’s half a dozen of them - a diminutive bunch but armed to the teeth and dead vicious with it!

As for the Merry Men – they're as motley a crew as you’ve ever seen. There’s Little John (who really is little!), Alan-a-Dale, the moaning minstrel, Mutch the Miller’s Son, Will Scarlett, whose favourite colour is red, O’Hara, the Irish one, and Harvey Nix, the classy one. Oh, and there’s Colin – he’s the one who thinks he’s in the Rocky Horror Show! In fact, there are as many Merry Men as people you’ve got wanting to play them, and, apart from Willie, Colin and Robin himself, they can all be played by the females of the company.

Problem is, with everyone wanting to be Merry Men, it means there’s no-one left to play the ancillary roles and some unfortunate is going to be landed with them all – serving wench, messenger, nightwatchman, Punch and Judy man, revolting townsfolk, the lot. In reality this is a plum part culminating in a portrayal of King Richard – the Cur de Lyons, Lemon Tart or Dandelion. With everyone standing reverently, hand on heart, to attention every time his name is mentioned, his long-awaited, lisping entrance is obviously going to be a let-down!

It’s not a pantomime, though it has lots of the ingredients that go to make up a successful pantomime – larger than life characters, music and dancing, and a fun-filled, action-packed plot guaranteed to appeal to all the family. Like a pantomime there’s scope for as large a cast as you like – even down to the ones who prefer to remain anonymous in the ranks of the chorus – but unlike a pantomime the hero gets to kiss the heroine at the end! Order a reading copy

With your stage crew all set to take their summer holidays – after all, it’s a long time between one pantomime and another – you’ve sprung this extra production on them! So best to keep the scenery requirements for this show to a minimum*. And they don’t come much more minimal than this.

With neutral wing flats and backdrop, just one tree, plus a couple of tree stumps, moving about as necessary, is all that’s called for to represent various locations within Sherwood Forest.

A rostrum and a length of balustrade masquerade as a balcony, the only visible part of Nottingham Castle, while on Fair Day the market square at Nottingham also boasts a dais for the Talent Contest stage a coconut shy and Punch and Judy booth.

The banqueting hall inside the castle is played to curtains and is represented by a trestle table, with perhaps a couple of heraldic banners if desired, while, in good pantomime tradition these scenes are interspersed with action “front of tabs” when various Nottingham streets and forest paths are called for.

* alternatively, if you’ve got the facilities and your stage hands aren’t on holiday,there’s nothing to stop you going to town! Top

Any campfire scene calls for a good campfire song – so how about a rousing chorus of Gin Gan Goolie for starters? And while it’s a simple life in Sherwood Forest it’s got all The Bare Necessities. When the Merry Men march on Nottingham it’s a case of Following the Leader and, with all those Archers about, who could resist including that traditional old English folk tune, Barwick Green?

Alan-a-Dale is trying his hardest to pen a ballad to ensure Robin Hood’s name lives on in history, with Oo-de-Lally from Disney’s Robin Hood – the version with the animals – providing the basis for a number that just keeps on growing along with the exploits in the plot. The Naughty Norman Knights couldn’t do better than sing Little People, while inclusion of a fairground scene calls out for I’ve Got a Loverly Bunch of Coconuts!

When Robin Hood and the Sheriff go head to head in the Grand Final of the Nottingham Castle Talent Contest – well, a duel to the death would be just too dangerous and we all know who would lose! – there’s scope for Robin and his backing group to render that Osmonds/Boyzone hit, Love Me for a Reason, while the Sheriff takes to the stage with an Elvis number.

And Maid Marion and Willie Eck might end up tying the knot under the greenwood tree but without doubt they’re Going to the Chapel of Love! Top