The Merry Men

Outsider Company—Asper Centre for Theatre and Film

Sherwood forest has come alive thanks to the misfits from outsider company. This quirky play paints Robin Hood, a not so great leader, and his band of caring empathetic wannabe thieves as they attempt to steal from Prince John and overthrow him. The small cast of four presents a modernized medieval tale with out of period jokes and whole heck of a lot of puns. This is definitely a safe bet for families wanting to attend the Fringe. While families may like it there were quite a few issues. The biggest one that stood out to me was in a scene where a stage hand walks out during a conversation between actors and hangs a line of clothes. Maybe it was intentional, but due to how some of the other set changes were handled I’m going to assume they forgot to place the most integral prop to that scene. It completely took myself out of the scene and looked very unpolished. The ending also fell really flat. I understand that they wanted to wrap up all of the character arcs, but the dialogue was sloppy and rushed. I left the theatre wishing that the order of scenes had been different or that another scene was added to tie everything together better. In short, the play was funny, with a few good one liners, but poor scenes changes and a disappointing ending left me feeling a little underwhelmed.

Kaitlyn Kriss