FLINT, Mich.–When you walk into the Flint Youth Theatre to watch the current production of Robin Hood, there is a moment of confusion as the stage just has a couple of janitors’ buckets on stage and some plastic storage tubs along with a few other seemingly extraneous bits of backstage gear. Is there a show?

Once the two actors get going, though, it is clear that this isn’t a stage version of the Errol Flynn movie–The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The play begins when Brandon A. Wright enters the stage as a custodian mopping the floor. Wright eventually comes to play Robin Hood. Then, Bret Beaudry enters a few moments later, also as a custodian. The play starts with both doing a shadow show introducing Robin Hood.

It’s as if the two custodians are so taken with the story and an audience there to hear the story that they just set aside their janitorial duties. The thought crossed my mind with these two characters: maybe they do this every day. Maybe tomorrow it will be the Three Musketeers.

The two tell the story with all the improvised props and set pieces they can grab hold of. Bandanas and mop heads for hair as they change characters, mop handles for staffs that Robin and Little John and Friar Tuck do battle with and the plastic tubs get reconfigured for all sorts of things including King Johns throne.

Wright and Beaudry, under the direction of Michael Lluberes, keep up almost frenetic energy throughout the approximately 1 1/2 hour no-intermission show. And their rapid transitions from one character to another was just the right level and cadence to keep young people’s attention spans fixed pretty well.

There are no castles, moats, horses or legions of bandits or court guards. There are two fine actors with a bunch of everyday janitor-stuff to play with and they get to tell one of the great storybook tales of all time.

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