Robin Hood Mayflower Theatre

Tuesday 20 December 2016

Well Alice has only gone and arranged another brilliant night for the SotonBloggers just before Christmas! How she does it I don't know. Luckily for us, this event is with the lovely guys at Mayflower Theatre*. So a little group of us got to go and see Robin Hood, the biggest family panto on the south coast. And by the looks of twitter, we were all so excited to go!




The leading roles for Robin Hood were Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace, I'm pretty sure we all recognise those names and faces right? After their time playing Alfie and Kat, they've well and truly established themselves as a perfect pairing. And it really showed on stage that they actually have a good connection and were exactly who you would want sharing a stage. The stage was also graced with the likes of Jeffrey Holland, Pete Gallagher, Peter Piper, Phil Hitchcock, Jamie Kenna, Danny Potts and Ashleigh Gray all of which have either had theatre experience or been in the spot light, playing Robin's band of Merry Men was The Acromaniacs. All sounding good right?

I haven't been to a pantomime since I was little, I honestly couldn't wait to get there and I knew everyone else coming were just as up for shouting out from the audience as I was. Robin Hood is produced by Qdos Entertainment, the worlds largest pantomime producer. With all that experience behind them, as well as breaking records, I went in with high expectations.

Shane really got the crowd going, joke and puns every chance, he did have us giggling. But I have got to say, you couldn't possibly get any more Eastenders jokes in there if you tried even the odd jab at loose women. It did get old, but he did manage to make up for it with his performance.

I'll tell you who was pretty amazing and stole the show, Merlin, played by illusionist Phil Hitchcock, and a bloody good illusionist at that! There was fire, doves, even sparkles, the works! I'm still baffled as to where those fricken doves went!

There was a T-Rex, and when I say T-Rex I mean a bloody giant one on stage, smoke and all! Cue T-Rex puns from us grown up bloggers. Then there was a Ghost Busters scene. There was all sorts going on. Singing, dancing, acrobatics, something for everyone. They even got the audience involved, which is always fun. A highlight was 100% Shane Richie losing his footing and falling over while pulling the curtain down with him. Cry laughing at that!

Then came the 3D section, travelling through the woods, some very creepy woods. There were insects jumping out at you, snakes, spiders, rocks, scary fire tree men. You could just hear everyone jumping, and tiny children screaming. It scared me, so good luck to those parents tonight. But, you do have to lift your hat to a pantomime that's also able the bring the 3D experience with them. We were all very surprised when we noticed the 3D part on the programme.

You know its been a good night when you all catch up outside after the shows over, talking all about the performance, your favourite bits, the not so favourite and even small aspects that you missed but others picked up on. There was one particular dancer that was killing it, and seemed so into it but I don't know his name! Killer body roll and a bucket of sass from him.

A big thanks to the lovely lot at Mayflower Theatre that invite us along and look after us so well, I've absolutely loved coming along to these shows!

I also have to say a massive thank you to Alice, who spends her own free time arranging such great experiences for us all to enjoy. She puts so much effort and time into running SotonBloggers giving us all the opportunity to meet new faces and network. If it wasn't for her putting this all together for us bloggers, vloggers and creators, we wouldn't have such a great community and opportunities in Southampton.

If you're in or around Southampton, Robin Hood is showing at The Mayflower Theatre until 8th January 2017!

Emily-May xo

* All photos provided by Mayflower Theatre
* Complementary tickets

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