Peter Duncan, Oxford Playhouse director, tells Gill Sutherland about the daring, dangerous Robin Hood launching this weekend

‘The tightrope’s up, the pond is ready and the set looks fabulous,” says director Peter Duncan when I ask him how ready panto Robin Hood is for the opening night on Friday.

Hang on, tightrope? Doesn’t that belong in a circus, not a panto? And a pond, doesn’t that belong in... a garden?

“Huh huh,” chortles Peter, “well we like to do things a bit differently. You have to add in new ingredients to make it creatively different each year — it’s the details that count.

“This year we’re moving the musicians onstage and have created a forest on the lower level where they used to be — I wanted a flowing river but have settled for a pond. Although I haven’t actually seen that working yet,” he adds, with just a pinch of worry.

...And the tightrope? Sounds a bit dangerous? “Yes, it is very high. Robin nips across it to rescue Marian,” explains a deadpan Peter, sounding like walking on an inch-wide rope from a vertiginous height is fairly ho-hum.

“Our Robin, Jos Vantyler, is from a circus family. It’s great because the height, lights and atmosphere give a real psychological edge to the drama – he really looks the hero.”

And has the director himself been tempted by a quick tiptoe along the tightrope? “Well I am a tightrope walker,” says Peter unsurprisingly — after all, as well as a director (he’s directed the last six pantos here), he’s also an actor and documentary-maker, and of course famously was a Blue Peter presenter and the Chief Scout of GB. “There’s a low rig tightrope I’ve been on, but I’d rather be up there though,” he adds wistfully.

Panto and performance, in case you hadn’t guessed, is in Peter’s DNA.

“My parents put on pantos in Tunbridge Wells in the ’60s and ’70s, so I was surrounded by all the paraphernalia,” says Peter, the jigsaw of his psychology becoming ever clearer. “Mum was principal boy and Dad was producer. They were variety people – Mum was a singer and Dad was a light comedian. But I really didn’t get involved until I was much older, after becoming a professional actor.”

Oxford Mail:

Oh yes, the acting career – Peter, now 59, had a impressive early career, joining Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre as a teen, appearing in numerous plays, TV shows and films until joining Blue Peter in 1980. But it was during his time at the National that he met Sir Olivier, which had a big effect on how he sees himself as a director.

“When I was a kid, I joined the NT in 1970-72. I realised he, as actor-manager, was a cavalier while the bureaucrats were the roundheads. And I admire that spirit, the people who are actually doing it should be in charge of it.

“But I don’t believe in a ‘director’s theatre’ either. So with directing the panto, it’s about the team. I don’t tell people what to do, I just organise. I come up with the concept and put all the ingredients in and just hope it works.”

Your pantos are well known for being a bit different, what can we expect this year?

“Great songs and dancing, spectacle and a death slide!” he enthuses. “We like to add a twist of something new and to contemporise the panto,” he says, back in earnest mode, “so if you are going to use song and dance, then we get the best singers and the best dancers and make it relevant.

“Bowie’s been around a lot at the moment so we’ve got a homage him, which is fun. With Robin and Marian there’s cross-dressing, gender confusion, then during a dream sequence the baddie comes on as the Thin White Duke and it turns into a nightmare. And there’s a Mumford and Sons feel to the music as well this year.”

How are you dealing with the actual Robin Hood story? “It’s a true romance, there’s not too much camp, we focus on the love story between Marian (she appears as Fryess Tuck) and Robin.

“But of course there’s lots of politics that are relevant to today – poor people fleeing to the woods, and so we’ve got some anti-Government gags about bedroom tax,” he says, clearly relishing the fun with a hint of controversy.

“It’s the last form of variety,” begins Peter, asked to explain his panto philosophy. “In Victorian times people sat in theatre to watch a melodrama, have a drink, and be involved with what was on stage – laughing and crying, stage and audience were connected. Now, in theatres, we sit in the dark and don’t shout out. But panto lives beyond that and it’s fab – something from the past that still appeals. And of course it makes commercial sense for places like the Playhouse, it helps keep them going.”

And who would say boo hiss to that?

  • Robin Hood
  • Oxford Playhouse
  • Friday, November 29 until Sunday, January 12
  • Box office: 01865 305305 or oxfordplay house.com