From a review by theatre critic Susan Pellowe
published in London’s Plays International magazine, August 1995:
“Robyn
Hood” keeps you on your mental toes to follow the intricacies and delights of a
Shakespearean script you’ve never heard before—an almost unimaginable
experience for Bardophiles—all the while knowing it is penned by Chicagoan
Scott Lynch-Giddings. The script is a considerable achievement, carrying easily
Shakespearean hallmarks of work play, balanced phrases, extended metaphors (a paean
to his bow, “My refuge is within a crafted arc”), poetry of thought, blank
verse, classical references (“There’s more of Icarus than Pegasus in thee!”),
well-woven subplots, roles for actors to sink their teeth into, quotable lines
to keep a critic’s pen busy, and a running time of well past two hours!
Staged in the smallish space
of Chicago Dramatists Workshop theatre, it tells the familiar story of Robin
Hood with three-dimensional characters whose overtones tease died-in-the-wool
Shakespeareans: the black-hearted, black-humoured sheriff with wicked laugh
(Richard Marlatt) hints of an unredeeming Edmund; the band of woodland men is
akin to “As You Like It” as is Maid Marian’s cross-dressing—in this instance to
free Robin (Stephen Spencer); Robin’s conviviality among them plays off his
contemplative nature and serious purpose very like Prince Hal’s; Will Scarlock
(the charismatic Paul Connell) woos Marian’s maid Sabina (Linda Fontaine) in
the same vein King Henry wooed Katherine.
The versatile Lynch-Giddings
also wrote the occasional music, sung a cappella or to guitar, including a
lusty companion song by the male ensemble, a drinking song, and an ensemble
finale “Around and around and around” that circles to the epilogue. It may be,
as one jests of Robin’s singing, that “the nightingale’s employment is secure,”
but the style of music blends with the layered, literate script for a delicious
whole.