With their new adaptation of Julia Donaldson’s children’s story The Baddies, David Greig and the team at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh are hoping to attract a whole new generation of theatre-goers, writes Joyce McMillan
When Freckle Productions’ much-loved touring version of Stick Man visited the Lyceum Theatre last October, the show was already almost ten years old, and had visited Edinburgh at least once before, as part of Edinburgh’s Christmas in 2015.
Yet it played to packed houses, and delighted audiences; and it only confirmed Lyceum director David Greig’s feeling that, instead of just playing host to children’s shows with that enduring year-round appeal, the Lyceum should try its hand at co-producing one.
The result is The Baddies, set to open the Lyceum’s autumn season next week; and as anyone who has already read the Baddies’ story to a child or grandchild will know, the omens are good for a rollicking piece of theatre, based on this latest rhyming tale for young children by the award-winning Glasgow-based writer Julia Donaldson. Donaldson is famous not only for the record-breaking Stick Man, but for her Gruffalo and Zog books, as well as other classics including Room On The Broom; and all her books are illustrated by the great Axel Scheffler, who first began working with Donaldson more than 30 years ago.
“I’m sure there must be parents all over Scotland who can recite some of these stories off by heart, children love them so much,” says Greig, in a break from rehearsal; “and Freckle Theatre’s stage versions seem to work so well for family audiences that it made every kind of sense to co-produce with them.
“So together with dramaturg Jackie Crichton, I’ve adapted the story into a short show of about 70 minutes or so, directed and choreographed by Katie Beard, who also co-directed Freckle’s current version of Zog And The Flying Doctors. And we’re fantastically lucky to have songs for the show by Joe Stilgoe, who has also worked with Freckle before. I think he’s an absolute genius, and his songs and lyrics just bring the characters leaping off the page. They’re also very witty, in a way that adults can enjoy, as well.”
The Baddies is a strangely contemporary tale about three baddies – a gruffalo-like troll, a witch and a ghost – living in a high mountain valley. They pride themselves on being very bad indeed; and when a little girl arrives to stay in a nearby cottage, carrying all her worldly goods in a blue and white spotted hankie, they resolve to terrify her out of her wits.
“They’re all trying to get what they want by playing on people’s fears,” says Greig, “and you do have to ask yourself what that reminds you of, in today’s world. What makes the story a joy, though, and what I think children love about it, is that despite the Baddies’ threats, they are all really bad at being bad, and make an absolute mess of it.
“And what’s even more interesting is that in this little girl, they just absolutely meet their match. She’s calm, she’s kind, and she completely refuses to play the game on their terms; so there’s a lot to learn, there, about how to respond to baddies who want to draw you into their world.”
It’s no simple job to turn a story that would take perhaps ten minutes to read aloud into an hour-long piece of theatre that maintains the same momentum; but as director Katie Beard explains, the sheer quality and richness of Donaldson’s writing and Scheffler’s illustrations make it a pleasure.
“What David and Jackie Crichton have done,” says Beard, “is to look very deeply into the world created by the book, and expand that world on stage in a way that clever and funny, and also sometimes quite moving.
“For example, they’ve thought about the book’s Alpine landscape – which we’re gently transforming into a Highland landscape – and about what the girl might be doing there, perhaps coming up to mind the sheep for the summer. They’ve looked at figures and animals that appear only in the drawings, like the witch’s black cat; and that’s opened up a whole world of puppetry for us. There are really theatrical things like the witch’s not-very-successful spells, which give us a chance for some vey funny special effects.
“And finally, of course, there’s the musical element, the song and dance numbers, with Joe Stilgoe’s great music and lyrics; and if you put all that together – well then, you’ve got a show!”
The rehearsals for The Baddies are taking place, of course, against a backdrop of frightening times for Scotland’s producing theatre companies, and particularly for the major building-based ones. Last week, Dundee Rep’s executive director warned the Scottish Parliament’s culture committee of a potential “domino effect” of bankruptcies and closures among Scottish theatres this year, as uncertainties surrounding this autumn’s Creative Scotland funding round remain unresolved; and Greig has announced that he will step down as the Lyceum’s artistic director next year, after nine exhausting years in the job.
“At the moment, though, I’m still fully involved in planning for our 2025-2026 season,” says Greig, “and although this is such a difficult time, nothing cheers you up so much as getting into the rehearsal room and making a show based on such wonderful material, and working with such a great team.
“I’m delighted to see some Scottish theatres making really imaginative appointments for the future, such as the recent announcement that Alan Cumming will take over as artistic director at Pitlochry next year. It’s true that the vast majority of theatre tickets sold in Scotland still go to big blockbuster touring shows created elsewhere. But my top priority is always that we keep on making work here, and trying to shift that balance; and with The Baddies, we’re certainly doing that – and hoping to attract a whole new generation of theatre-goers in the process.”
The Baddies is at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 4-20 October, and on tour across the UK, including the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr, 10 May 2025
