Robin Hood

*As with all youth productions, we do not provide a numerical score.

This past weekend saw the opening of Robin Hood, serving as this year's youth production at the High Spring Playhouse. Unlike many local theaters, High Springs Playhouse puts the entirety of the youth production in the hands of young directors, as well as the young actors on stage. This year, the youth production is directed by Clara Foltz who takes on a challenge with a version of Robin Hood that has an almost Shakespearean essence.

While the content and story are appropriate for young viewers, the elevated language challenges audiences and requires heightened attention to follow the dialogue. Foltz and her cast rise to the occasion and navigate the writing with ease. Acting newcomer Archer Newton, playing the charming and eponymous Robin Hood, not only handles the language with ease, but he adds flourish and character to it to completely flesh out the pivotal role. He portrays a quintessential Robin Hood who is a friend with a fierce passion for what is right and will fight foes with both strength and wit.

While there are no talking foxes or lively musical numbers, the cast finds other ways to

fully engage the audience. During the pre-show announcements, Foltz takes the stage to

inform the audience that cheering and booing during the fight scenes, similar to the Medieval Times attraction, is not only allowed, but encouraged. The painted set resembles an illustration from a story book and uses closing panels to creatively change the setting from castle interior to Sherwood Forest. Lively stage hands dance their way through scene changes, adding flair to a would be mundane task. To honor Robin Hood's stated goal of robbing the rich to feed the poor, this production adds to the fun by tossing all the stolen loot into the crowd in the form of gold chocolate coins.

The promised fight scenes went above and beyond expectation with fight choreography that would leave Errol Flynn smiling. The actors clearly worked hard to perfect these scenes that had them sword fighting, rolling, dodging blows, and jumping off stairs. It was not hard for the audience to get into the action and cheer for the merry men and boo the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham.

As a youth production, many of the actors have experience being on stage, but are still fresh to theater as a craft. They are comfortable with the basics and are exploring the next step in their budding acting and directing careers. There is no shortage of passion and commitment from anyone on or off stage and the hard work that went into it shines through

, creating an experience that is fun for all audiences.

Robin Hood is on stage at the High Springs Playhouse until August 2nd , with

performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7pm and a matinee on Sunday at

2pm. Tickets are on sale at highspringsplayhouse.com.