CONTENT ADVISORY

Recommended Age Range: 3rd grade & up

Run Time: Approximately 60 minutes (no intermission)

Language

• There are beggars in the beginning of the play that ask the audience for money.

• The beggars say they are “cold,” “homeless and hungry,” and “dirty, broke and hungry.”

• The beggars say that “the men up on their high horses” came and burned their homes and fields and stole their harvest.

• When Much is captured by the Sheriff, the men say they’ve caught him before and “cut off two of his fingers.” Then, they say since they’ve captured him again that they will “take out his eyes.” They say that the next time they capture him “he hangs.”

• The sheriff tells his men to “shut up.”

• The sheriff says he “doesn't like children,” and that he “wouldn’t waste my food on them.”

• The sheriff calls Robin Hood a “rotten do-gooder that helps out lazy wretches.”

• The sheriff calls Robin Hood a “cowardly, cowardly custard.”

• The sheriff calls his men “idiots.”

• Robin Hood says his arrow is aimed at the Sheriff’s heart “or the place it should be.”

• The Sheriff says that the Prince will have Robin’s head.

• The Sheriff says “You can forget about King Flipping Richard.”

• The Sheriff says he will “burn out his eyes!” when talking about Robin Hood.

• The Prince calls the Sheriff a “very weedy little rabbit.”

• The Sheriff calls Maid Marian a “stupid girl.”

• Little John tells Robin that he’ll “tan your hide with this staff of mine, then soak you in the stream.”

• The Sheriff calls Friar Tuck a “big oaf,” and says if he doesn’t move that he will have him “whipped, monk or no monk.”

• Little John calls the Sheriff a “liar, liar, pants on fire.”

• The Sheriff calls Maid Marian a “hateful girl.”

• The Sheriff calls Robin in disguise an “old fool.”

• The Sheriff tells the Prince to “shut up!”

Themes and Situations

• The themes of Robin Hood are good vs evil, poor vs rich, corruption, love, honor, friendship, and legacy.

• There are situations where beggars ask the audience for money.

• The Sheriff and his men capture the old man Much for trying to hunt a deer and he ends up getting killed.

• There are situations where men get captured by the Sheriff, and are sentenced to be hung.

• The Prince comes onstage in a bath full of money.

• The Sheriff threatens Maid Marian if she does not help him capture Robin Hood

• There are many situations of lies and disguises. The Sheriff sets up a trap to capture Robin Hood by pretending to be attacked by his own men. Because of the threat to her father’s life, Maid Marian pretends to be a scared woman in front of Robin Hood and he believes her and invites her to his camp. The sheriff dresses up like a peasant and tries to deceive Little John into letting him into Robin Hood’s secret hiding place. Robin and Marian disguise themselves for the King’s tournament.

• There is a situation where the Sheriff and Maid Marian’s father try to make her marry the Sheriff.

• There are many situations of fighting and mild violence. A lot of this is done in a comical, melodramatic way, but the nature of it is still aggressive in nature. The Sheriff kills Much in the beginning and burns down his house, the Sheriff uses force to capture men, Robin and Little John have a battle when they met each other, Robin sticks the Sheriff’s legs with fake arrows to make him dance, Robin and the Sheriff have a battle after Robin wins the king’s archery tournament which ends in the Sheriff dying, and Robin battles King John and his men.

• This story is not necessarily a happy ending for all the characters, but it is about how legacy is passed down, especially during hard times.

Potential Scary Moments

• Beggars speak directly to the audience at the beginning of the play about being poor and hungry. They say that it is a death penalty if they hunt in the forest and shoot the king’s deer.

• The character Much gets caught by the Sheriff while trying to kill the King’s deer to feed his family

• The sheriff burns down Much’s cottage because he doesn't give up Robin Hood’s location.

• The older Much gets stabbed in a skirmish with the Sheriff and dies.

• The Sheriff says that the Prince will have Robin’s head.

• Will gets captured by the Sheriff and his men.

• Marin’s father and the Sheriff both try to make her marry the Sheriff.

• Maid Marian and Robin, both in disguise, fight each other on their way to the archery competition.

• Robin Hood and the Sheriff have a big battle that ends in Robin getting hurt and the Sheriff dying.

• After King Richard returns and Robin is pardoned, he is seized by the prince’s men while praying. There he finds out that King Richard is dead and he is imprisoned by the new King John.

• Robin Hood escapes the prison, but is hurt in the process.