Robin Hood with no Robin Hood? It's Goobledigook in new adventure at Bolton Abbey

"Gobbledigook tell stories as promenade interactive adventures, and what better way to tell the story of Robin Hood than by being surrounded by the river, the fields and the forests, while Bolton Abbey's famous Priory ruins make the perfect place for a banquet fit for Prince John," says producer Phil Grainger, who has director Alexander Flanagan Wright and writer Dave Jarman working alongside him.

"With such a perfect setting for the story, Gobbledigook are thrilled to carry on their Bolton Abbey performances after the huge success of The Wind In The Willows last year. We had such a fantastic time and we were over the moon to be asked to continue the fun here, and though it was hard to imagine another story fitting the setting as well as last year's debut did, Robin Hood and Bolton Abbey are perfect together."

Last year, Jarman's adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's riparian children's story utilised the River Wharfe for Ratty's boat; played out Toad's Toad Hall scenes against the backdrop of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire's country pile; had Toad speed off in a glorious, tooting and beeping car and found the perfect dip in the gradient for Badger's camouflaged set.

This year, on various dates from today until August 6, family audiences will once more set out from a tent to "follow the courageous heroes as they seek to bring down the crown, and they will need to chose who they side with", as they venture from the Outlaws' woodland camp on the other side of the river to the Prince's banquet.

"The performance is full of strong women, the countryside and revolution. It's Robin Hood for 2017, it's full of surprises," says Phil, and those surprises start with the show's tagline: Robin Hood, An Adventure with Maid Marion and The Merry Men.

"The River Wharfe, stepping stones, surrounding woodland and Priory ruins will provide the backdrop to our adventure with Marion, the Merry Men, the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John," says Phil.

No Robin Hood, you will note, shock of shocks. Let director Alexander Flanagan Wright explain. "The big conceit of the show is that there is no Robin Hood. Robin Hood has become a political idea that comes from this bunch of outlaws led by Marion [played by Gobbledigook newcomer Zoe Hakin]," he says.

The Outlaws' camp in the Bolton Abbey woodland

"So there's this notion that we're Marion and Scarlet, but we also understand there's a network of outlaws that's strengthening across the country, and when the revolution comes, there will be these pockets of outlaws that will rise up.

"It's like V For Vendetta [the 1996 film], the one with the Guy Fawkes mask, where we're not waiting for a hero but a revolution for the people and we no longer have a hero complex."

As for Robin Hood's time-honoured mantra of robbing from the rich to give to the poor, Alexander sees a message fit for today. "What you hope is that it's about making the gap smaller, and instead of having the rich getting richer and the poor poorer, we pull the two towards each other," he says. "After all these centuries, it's a shame that we're still using the term 'Robin Hood tax' as part of current politics."

Alexander, who revelled in playing a spiv Chief Weasel last summer, is relishing Gobbledigook's returns to the Bolton Abbey estate near Skipton. "Every day you arrive, you take a step back at its beauty and possibilities for making theatre," he says. "Normally, you have to think, 'how do we make a forest', but here you can just play it to scale. Woodland? The woods are there! Stepping stones in the river? Perfect!

"Last year, we didn't use the Priory ruins, but this year we are and that's such a cool place to tell a story. When you're doing a story about treason, a downtrodden population and a tyrannical leader, it's wonderful to be staging it where Henry VIII dismantled the abbey.

"The story we're telling in our Robin Hood is the creation of the first parliament and how power moved away from the autocratic ruler, so that monarchs could no longer order things like removing roofs from abbeys and monasteries.

"When you stand there, it's both beautiful and sad; when you work on a site like this you feel very small amid centuries and centuries of other people's decision-making."

The surprises promised by Phil Grainger will keep coming: no Friar Tuck; Nick Lewis's Prince John arriving on a buggy; and a character called Much, a miller's son, who says "How much?" each time he enquires how much farmers are charging for their grain.

What's more, Robert Heard's Sheriff of Nottingham will not be the baddie of long-standing myth. "He's always seen as the baddie who gets the bad rap, but he's kind of like a town councillor who's stuck between a rock and a hard place," says Alexander. "Actually, he's on the side of the outlaws in our show, keeping the wolf from the door, which is a really nice thing that Dave has done with the story.

"It's that grey area in the fight between good and evil when there's room for negotiation, so we play with the big politics of Parliament and the monarchy but also with the small politics of the day to day."

Gobbledigook Theatre presents Robin Hood, Bolton Abbey Estate, near Skipton, today until Sunday and next Wednesday to Sunday, at 2pm and 6.30pm. Duration: Two hours. Box office: buytickets.at/gobbledigook/98627 or tickettailor.com