INTERVIEW: Lottie Mae O’Kill, The Baddies UK Tour

A brand-new stage adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s smash-hit 2022 story is currently heading across the UK until June 2025.

The Baddies follows a group of mischievous creatures who cause trouble and chaos wherever they go. Their antics disrupt the peaceful lives of the villagers, leading to a series of humorous and unexpected events. Performing in the production is Lottie Mae O’Kill and we had the opportunity to chat with her about this new production.

Lottie Mae O’Kill headshot.

What attracted you to the show The Baddies, and how did you prepare to bring your character Mama Mouse to life on the stage?

I was fortunate to have been cast as a Swing in Freckle’s 2023 UK TOUR of Zog! I fell in love with the world of Children’s / Family Theatre and I really enjoyed working with Freckle. Earlier this year I was part of a Rehearsal and Development session for  The Baddies. This is where we workshop material and start creating the show.  We learnt a few songs, worked on the text and workshopped choreography.

I am so grateful to have been cast as Mama Mouse! I knew from the R&D that this was going to be a special show and I’m ecstatic to be a part of it. I absolutely adore Mama Mouse. She has many sides to her, she’s a busy multitasking mother, a creative and playful Mouse yet also very theatrical and dramatic. She lives for the theatre! 

I definitely channeled some parts of her whilst teaching in my other job at home. I love teaching, playing games and creating fun and exciting atmospheres for the kids I work with. Mama Mouse does this whilst telling her baby mice stories! She is also very theatrical and stagey and that is me all the time!

How does it feel to be part of a stage adaptation of a beloved Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler story?

It’s wonderful. I grew up reading many of her iconic stories and when I got older, I read them to my little brother. Her books connect a lot of us over many generations which is really amazing. The Baddies is a recent story so it’s great to see a new generation falling in love with her stories and characters much like we did. 

Freckle do such a brilliant job of adapting her books to the stage. They have very successful productions of Zog, Zog and The Flying Doctors and Stickman to name a few! The Baddies, however, is completely brand new. Seeing the signs outside the Royal Lyceum Theatre saying “World Premiere” made me so emotional. New theatre is so important, especially children’s theatre! 

Bringing The Baddies to life in our brand new stage adaption has been such a wonderful experience and I’m so excited for the rest of the tour. I adore theatre so much and to be a part of this Musical and Julia’s magical world is a great honour. 

I saw you previously perform in last year’s panto at the Loughborough Town Hall. How have you transferred some of those skills from that production into this one?

Definitely a few. As Mama Mouse is the Narrator of the story, she gets to connect with the audience a lot which I think is so important in Family Theatre. We engage with them and invite them into this world with us. We aren’t performing at them, we perform with them. We do that a lot in Panto as well! I’ll also be transferring a lot of physical performing skills. 

As we are magical storybook characters – our performances are very rich and larger than life! We are so lucky to have these characters which are so fun and quirky, it’s great to play around with them and find unique characteristics, voices and movements. 

What are some of the key themes in The Baddies that resonate with you, and how do they come across in the stage version?

There are great themes in The Baddies. Our stage adaption has taken things from the book and built upon them. We have Family, Belonging and Celebrating Uniqueness and being proud of who you are. These really resonate with me. The theme of Family is so important and the glimpse we get into Mama Mouses life and her relationship with her children is so special. It really helps connect the Mouse World to The world of The Baddies.

A huge theme in the stage adaptation is Belonging. Finding your place in the world, finding your people and uplifting and supporting each other. Without spoiling too much, our stage adaption has a gorgeous ending that is slightly different from the book but allows us to again, share that message of being proud of who you are and Celebrating what makes us different. We are all individuals and that is beautiful – it should be celebrated!

There is nothing more wonderful than embracing who you are. Being your entire, wonderful self and finding that place where you belong. 

What is the most exciting or challenging aspect of working in a show designed for young audiences?

It’s so exciting because we get to see and experience things through the eyes of a younger audience. Everything is so magical, and otherworldly and it fills us as a cast with childlike wonder as well. The joy from the audience is infectious and we really do see and feel it onstage. Every audience is different, some children and families find parts funny that others sometimes don’t, so every show feels different. And they find things funny where we don’t expect them to! It’s always a lot of fun. The show is silly and spooky yet also very moving. People of all ages enjoy it which is great. There is definitely something in it for everyone.

What has the experience been like working with the creative team and fellow cast members to adapt this popular book for the stage?

It’s been really collaborative which is cool! Getting to workshop lines and songs in different ways to see what works best is always really interesting. The teams at Freckle and The Lyceum are worked together- and then they collaborated with us, the actors. James Stirling who plays the Ghost improvised a line and it’s made it into the show! It was such a fun, playful rehearsal room and process. We were given freedom to read lines in different ways and explore lots of things like physicality and voices. We played a lot of games and exercises which were also brilliant and so helpful. Playing around with the relationship of Mama Mouse to The Baddies was really interesting. She goes in and out of storytelling mode to being in the story as an actual character so it was great to play around with that in the rehearsal process. She has many modes so we had fun work finding those moments!

Now you are working on a piece of theatre designed for young people. Why do you think its important that they access the arts and what do you think needs to be done to draw more in from those hard to reach areas?

Access to the arts for young people is so important. Being a teacher of Musical  Theatre, seeing them explore, create and learn through theatre and art is truly extraordinary. When Touring, we visit so many areas where theatre definitely isn’t as accessible as it is in other areas. Some families can’t get down to London and not all shows for young people tour to these locations. That’s why working with Freckle is great. We visit all over and get to put on this wonderful show for families with little ones who just adore it. For a lot of children, The Baddies will be their first experience of live theatre. It’s just so magical. 

When I’m not on the stage working, I teach at Heathfield Youth Drama. We play all sorts of games, create improvisations and help Children learn many life skills as-well as how to Sing, Dance and Act! I grew up attending this drama club so I know first hand how drama changes lives. I also wish there were more ways children could go to the Theatre for free. It can be very expensive for families. I know we have ‘Kids Week’ from 24th of July – 6th September but I wish the industry could put it on more often and in more locations to make Theatre more accessible for everyone. 

Catch Lottie in the UK tour of The Baddies until June 2025. Tour information is available here.