Except for Robin Hood’s occasional outings on the pantomime stage — as in Newbury this year — there is nothing especially Christmassy about the hero of Sherwood Forest. His associations, indeed, are more with rites of spring and the Green Man, as we are reminded by a supernatural sequence in The Heart of Robin Hood.

What is appropriate to the festive season, though, is family fun, which this fast-moving adventure story with music offers in abundance.

Icelandic director Gisli Örn Gardarsson supplies entertainment that is at once gripping, funny and spectacular, with lots of high-flying aerial action on wires. It’s at times macabre, too, as when a dead villain is manipulated as if he were a marionette. But everyone likes something a bit scary at Christmas . . .

“It really ought to have been called Maid Marion,” said someone behind me as we left the theatre. Such a title would truly better reflect a tale in which the feisty young Marion (Iris Roberts) — appalled at the prospect of a forced marriage to the villainous Prince John (Martin Hutson) — flees to the safety of Sherwood Forest with her comic sidekick Pierre (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson).

There she develops into an accomplished robber to rival Robin (James McArdle) — actually something of a bad hat here since the poor see nothing of what he takes from the rich.

Among writer David Farr’s engaging creations is a Little John (Michael Walter) who for once lives up to his name. After Lisa Hammond’s turn as the wheelchair-borne Herald in the controversial recent production of Marat/Sade, the RSC is perhaps out to prove that festive stage work for people of restricted growth can extend beyond Snow White.

Other striking performances are offered by Flora Montgomery as Marion’s odious snootbox of a sister, Alice, and Peter Bray as a clarinet-playing dog called Plug. Designer Börkur Jonsson’s set is a constant source of surprise, with its deep pond suitable for much ducking and a steeply angled rear wall of green down which there are many plummeting descents.

The Heart of Robin Hood is at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until January 7. For tickets go to the website (www.rsc.org.uk) or call 0844 800 1114).