Royal Court announces Edinburgh & tour dates for ME & ROBIN HOOD by Shôn Dale Jones

Following the success of 2016 Fringe First award winning The Duke, Hoipolloi’s Shôn Dale-Jones returns to Edinburgh with the second in a series of solo shows as he celebrates the 20^th anniversary of his Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut. ME & ROBIN HOOD, a collaboration with Hamish Pirie, examines the inequality that exists in society through Shôn’s relationship with his best fictional friend (and truly legendary hero), the Prince of Thieves himself.

Shôn Dale-Jones first encountered Robin Hood as a seven-year-old boy in November 1975 through the BBC mini-series The Legend of Robin Hood. Forty years on, Shôn and Robin look again at a modern world that continues to separate the rich from the poor, leaving only extreme options open to those who want to level the playing field. Through the eyes of the now adult Shôn and his ageless childhood friend, ME & ROBIN HOOD asks us to reflect on the opportunities life has offered us, to question what society truly values and encourage us to challenge and change the story of money.

As with The Duke, which captured the public’s imagination with a combination of theatre and fundraising, ME & ROBIN HOOD will employ a unique ticketing system that encourages audiences to donate to charity. This year, audiences will buy a ticket for £5 and be asked to bring cash to the show. ME & ROBIN HOOD is supporting Street Child United World Cup 2018, a charity which uses the power of sport to change the way the world sees and treats street connected children, raising visibility and giving a platform for their voices to be heard and for their lives to be changed.  Last year, Hoipolloi collected over £36,500 for the Save the Children Child Refugee Fund from audience donations via their Edinburgh show The Duke, which has toured extensively and will return to the Fringe this year.

Commenting on the project Shôn says: “ME & ROBIN HOOD is my response to how the growing gap between the rich and the poor is effecting the way the world is being shaped. It’s my attempt to encourage us to imagine the lives of those living without the opportunities ‘we’ have – ‘we’, the liberal-minded, well-educated theatre-going public. The show playfully challenges our relationship with the banks and flirts with romantic idea of becoming a radical revolutionary that can change the world. It gives audiences the chance to offer an opportunity to a child living on the streets to go to Street Child United’s 2018 World Cup and start to change their life.”

Hamish Pirie, Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre says: “Shôn is talking the talk but also walking the walk. He gives his ticket money to the causes looked at in his shows. He takes his work home with him. Shôn is a pure version of the writer as literal story teller. Asking questions of his own purpose while telling that yarn. It felt important to represent his craft on our stage.”

ME & ROBIN HOOD is a Hoipolloi & Royal Court Theatre co-production.

For the press release click here.

Listings:

Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh

Dates: 2-27 August 2017 (not 15 & 22)

Time: 4.00pm

Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre

Dates: 4-16 September 2017

Det Andreteatret, Oslo

Dates: 22-23 September 2017

Theatre Royal, Plymouth

Dates: 26 September – 7 October 2017

Cambridge Junction

Dates: 18 October 2017

Liverpool Everyman

Dates: 2-4 November 2017