LOCAL

'Robin Hood' comedy aims at gender issues

'Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood' opens Thursday at UNCW

John Staton StarNews Staff

If you like your gender politics served with slapstick and stage combat, "Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood" is a play you should look into.

Written by Adam Szymkowicz, the relatively new 2017 comedy opens Feb. 21 at the Mainstage Theatre in the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Cultural Arts Building. Robin Post, an assistant professor in the theater department, directs the student-acted university production.

"Marian, or the True Tale" takes the familiar story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men — who rob the rich, give to the poor and save damsels in distress along the way — and "puts it on its head," Post said, to "comment on gender norming and gender stereotypes as well as a number of other societal issues."

But "because it's a comedy," she added, "It doesn't feel preachy or didactic."

Of course, the Robin Hood story has gotten numerous film and stage treatments over the years, from Errol Flynn's 1938 swashbuckler and the animated 1973 Disney movie (which the play references) to Kevin Costner's famously mullet-laden 1991 actioner "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and even more recent takes starring Russell Crowe (2010) and Taron Egerton (2018). Sherwood Forest is well-trod ground.

"Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood," however, is probably the first time Robin Hood, played for UNCW by Katherine Carr, is actually Maid Marian is disguise. It's almost certainly the first to ask such questions as, "Are we the gender we're born?" as Post put it. ("Can I be a bear?" asks the forever-dimwitted Little John.)

But with a tone Post likens to "The Princess Bride" meets Monty Python, the edge is taken off some of the play's more contentious questions, which nevertheless should provide plenty of food for thought.

As for the stage combat, there's enough of it, and it's intense enough, that Post brought in fight choreographer Jeff Jones.

"We'll be having a battle,"Post said. "And then we'll stop and contemplate the meaning of life."

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.

Want to go?

What: "Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood," by Adam Szymkowicz, presented by the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Department of Theatre

When: 8 p.m. Feb. 21-23 and 28-March 2, 2 p.m. Feb. 24 and March 3

Where: Mainstage Theatre in the Cultural Arts Building, UNCW campus

Info: Tickets are $15; $12 for seniors, UNCW employees, and alums; $6 for students.

Details: 910-962-3500 or UNCW.edu/Theatre