What's so good about Robin Hood?

(Kevin Costner as Robin Hood*).

A couple of years ago I was having a drink with Visible Fictions artistic director Dougie Irvine and pitching the idea of a new version of Robin Hood. It's always been one of my favourite stories and I reckoned a low tec, slightly bonkers re-telling would be great.

Dougie was enthusiastic but we both had other shows to make and that was that. Or so I thought.

Last August I was rehearsing Dragon in Film City in Govan and Dougie was re-rehearsing Visible Fictions unstoppable masterpiece Jason & the Argonauts. He asked if I had had any more thoughts about the famous outlaw. Visible Fictions and the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC were planning a new collaboration and had settled on Robin Hood. Would I be interested?

Erm... Yes please, I said. Yes. Definitely.

What's so good about Robin Hood?

One of the defining films of my childhood was Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (my little sister and I knew all the words to Bryan Adams' hit Everything I Do and would sing along every Thursday when it came on Top of the Pops) and Maid Marion & Her Merry Men is still one of the best TV shows for kids ever. Anyone a bit older remembers Robin of Sherwood and The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn is a Hollywood classic. I wasn't a fan of the latest BBC TV version or the Ridley Scott film but both pulled in the audiences.

Robin shouldn't be so attractive. He's a thief. He lives in a wood. He hangs out with a bunch of unruly blokes. *He often has stupid hair.

But he steals from the rich and gives to the poor and in a time when 85 people are as wealthy as the poorest half of the world's population, this ancient tale seems as relevant as ever.

Robin Hood is a story about what happens when the most powerful forget about the least among us.

He isn't perfect - far from it - but he's on our side and that's ultimately why we love him.

Visible Fictions/Kennedy Centre's The Adventures of Robin Hood opens at the beginning of March. See here for more details.