Catherine Wheels: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Catherine Wheels Theatre Company is attempting what many thought Disney failed to achieve two decades ago: to successfully bring the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes to life. Directed by Gill Robertson, artistic head of Catherine Wheels, and co-produced with the National Theatre of Scotland, Something Wicked is an ambitious production that is aimed at families with children over the age of nine.

Originally published in 1962 by American writer Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked tells the story of two boys, both nearing the age of 14, who find adventure and peril when a travelling carnival comes to town. Led by the sinister Mr. Dark, the carnival lures people with magical promises that come with heavy and frightening consequences.

With its good vs. evil premise, the story mixes aspects of horror and fantasy with themes of friendship, maturity and father-son dynamics. “It’s a fantastic rites-of-passage novel,” says Robertson, who read the novel 15 years ago and instantly fell in love with it. “It’s a great kids book, but it’s also a great adults book.”

Carnivals are a recurring theme in Bradbury’s work, as he credits a childhood experience with a carnival attraction as being the driving force behind his becoming a writer. It was also his desire to work with cinema legend Gene Kelly that led to the story’s creation. Bradbury wanted Kelly to film a short story he’d written called 'The Dark Carnival'. Kelly reportedly had keen interest but could not secure the needed funding. Instead of being deterred, Bradbury expanded the concept into a novel.

Bradbury himself adapted the script which Robertson is now using. “It’s a script that’s close to his heart,” Robertson said. Indeed, when the play premiered in Los Angeles through his own theatre company, it was Bradbury who performed the play’s prologue. Although unable to travel to Scotland, he remains in touch with Robertson, offering edits and cuts that maintain some of the story’s philosophical debates while primarily focusing on the adventure tale.

Robertson speaks candidly about some of her influences for this production, most notably the recent National Theatre family shows staged in London, which she declared “some of the best nights I’ve had in the theatre”. She enjoyed directing The Wizard of Oz at the Lyceum last year and now wants to challenge herself further.

Robertson hopes to successfully stage “some of the things that really are unstageable” from the book by using such grand theatrics as live music, masks, film, choreography and complicated aerial acrobatics. Also key are the magical carousel and mirror maze, without which the production wouldn’t work. Robertson acknowledges that, without NTS’s backing, the production would have been too ambitious for Catherine Wheels alone to accomplish.

“I think people will come along… and not know what to expect. It’s wild, really.” Robertson is keen for quality family productions to be performed throughout the year, and not just at Christmas. She also hopes that the production will appeal to and entertain everyone. “I think it will be a really good night out. That’s what I’m hoping.”