While Spike Milligan’s book Badjelly the Witch (1973)is a little-known piece of ephemera elsewhere in the world, in New Zealand it’s a cult hit and a bona fide national treasure with the audio version, narrated by Milligan and accompanied by an orchestra, sitting on hi-rotate on children’s radio shows and stereos around the country.

This stage production, adapted from the original by Alannah O’Sullivan, is likewise a staple of Kiwi kids’ theatre. It follows the book faithfully in telling the story of siblings Tim and Rose, as they go in search of their cow, Lucy, who has been abducted by – and added to the pantry of – the witch Badjelly.

The two children venture forth into the forest to find their ‘lost milk’ where they are assisted by a variety of improbable characters before being captured to the witch and her giant, Dulboot, who are in a mind to make a pot of boy-girl soup.

It’s a delightfully ridiculous story, and one that happily operates on its own sideways and child-friendly logic.

The young cast of five, directed by Melanie Luckman, are enthusiastic and genuine in their delivery. Tim (Tim Earl) and Rose (Beth Alexander) are a delightful pair who bring depth to their relationship. The remaining cast members (Kate Taylor, Isaac Pawson and Sophie Petersen) throw a great deal of energy into their varied roles, and they generally form a good rapport with the audience, even if their character work isn’t consistently strong. 

After the show, Lucy (aged 4) waggles her bum at me while telling me how much she liked all the bare-bottom business at the end. Harriet (aged 6) rattles off a list of her favourite characters – most of them, to be honest – but she is particularly taken with the points at which she got to shout at the cast and their antics. Both girls sit attentively throughout, and elsewhere in the crowd there seems to be a dearth of wiggly bottoms, so the show is clearly successful with its target audience.  

The girls’ mother and I are less enthused about the show. This production and adaptation retains the silliness and idiosyncratic nature of the source material without embracing the wit or warmth that make it successfully whimsical. We’re both of the generation that has grown up knowing Spike Milligan’s gorgeous audio version off-by-heart and who still treasure tatty copies of the hand-drawn picture book, but this stage version feels to both of us like a watercolour version of a vibrant painting.

While I really commend the Court’s interest in investing in younger actors who are variously in training or are recent graduates of drama schools, I am not sure why more experienced cast members weren’t employed. This is especially the case with the role of Badjelly (Kate Taylor, whose lines I have difficulty making out), which begs for an older woman or a man in panto-drag. There’s a fine line between something being deliciously scary and a bit too frightening for young children but she is pitched in a very strange way, such that the cast’s request for the children to boo her goes largely unheeded and it’s hard to get a sense of her character, beyond her being petulant. She’s less wicked witch and more bad fairy.

Kids’ shows at the Court Theatre are constrained or abetted by the set of the evening show at the time, and in this instance the show works with the metal-framed set of Mary Poppins. While this is not a great match aesthetically, Badjelly the Witch makes excellent use of the set’s jungle gym-like construction and its levels, which are dressed with tall, illustrated tree trunks to give the sense of a forest. The large LED panels that form the upper backdrop allow for some nifty animated effects (care of AV designer Andrew Todd) as the characters move about and interact with their environment.

I am far less fond of the sound design, and the songs, which I presume are a part of Alannah O’Sullivan’s adaptation, are so out of step and simplistic in their lyrics that it’s a bit cringe-inducing.

I’ve been privy to some recent discussions amongst theatre practitioners about the role of children’s theatre and the way it is valued, or not, as an art form. My criticisms here reflect the fact that these issues have been playing strongly on my mind, especially after seeing a stellar family show (The Messy Magic Show) at the World Buskers Festival in the weekend.

Today I left the theatre feeling that even though this production has great ‘brand value’ and is likely to get thousands of small bums on big seats, it has been under-resourced by the Court Theatre and treated as a cultural afterthought. It feels and looks low-rent. We have one very inexpensive, sweet picture-book set tacked onto another much more expensive set; young, enthusiastic (and cheap?) early career actors hired instead of established figures; good work done with a seriously limited costume and props budget; lower ‘it’ll do’ standards of performance and production values than adult shows; and so on.

Little kids and their grown up companions, as well as the all the hard-working artistic staff involved, deserve better. 

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