Chronic Insanity to debut Folklore: The Trials of Robin Hood in Nottingham this January
Chronic Insanity’s Folklore: The Trials of Robin Hood will fill five floors of the National Justice Museum with a cast of more than 60 performers this January.
Image: Len Schaffert
Award-winning Nottingham company Chronic Insanity is turning the National Justice Museum into one of the largest indoor immersive theatre experiences in the UK this January. Each night, 300 audience members and 60 performers will have free roam of five floors, including areas not normally open to the public, for Folklore: The Trials of Robin Hood.
The Major Oak has died, and Robin Hood’s spirit is caught in a custody battle. Seven factions have risen from the ether to fight over whether he is recorded as Man or Myth, and it’s up to the audience to settle the matter.
Photo: Lamar. Chronic Insanity's Apple of Discord.
Over the course of the three-hour show, audience members can join factions, interview witnesses, gather evidence, blackmail their enemies and lobby for the outcome of three trials in the Victorian Civil Courtroom. They can also wander off into an entirely different set of stories in the Small Claims Court, where vikings, witches and other colourful characters are waiting.
No two nights will be the same. The audience shapes every performance from start to finish, and audiences can save their achievements and return on subsequent nights to steer the story towards a completely different outcome.
Joe Strickland, Artistic Director at Chronic Insanity, comments:
We’re always trying to push immersive and interactive theatre to its limit, not letting us being a small regional theatre company stop us from making some of the most massive and daring work in the UK. This show is about giving audiences the opportunity to decide a historic event, letting them be the people with power and influence, and revealing how other people with that same real-world power and influence find ways to manipulate the truth into whatever shape best serves them. Will you bend reality to your will, or fight for the truth to come to light. There’s only one way to find out!
Photo: Lamar. Chronic Insanity's Apple of Discord.
The Trials of Robin Hood is a major step up for Chronic Insanity. Their previous immersive production, Apple of Discord, played to over 1,000 people at The People’s Hall on Heathcote Street, with 70 audience members a night roaming three floors of the Grade II listed building. It was acclaimed locally and nationally, earning 4 stars from The Stage and 5 stars from Elemental Theatre.
At more than four times the nightly audience capacity, this new show takes that formula into one of the country’s most striking heritage buildings, with a cast of over 60 and a building that is centuries old.
The Trials of Robin Hood plays at the National Justice Museum, Nottingham, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in January 2027, from 8th January 2027.
Folklore: The Trials of Robin Hood will run on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout January at the National Justice Museum, Nottingham. Tickets are priced from £20.00. For more information and to book tickets, visit universe.com
