“I will never forget the sight of 400 children chanting “Far and Few, Far and Few are the lands where the Jumblies live’. I had been puzzled by the play but the children were completely at home with it. ”

Programme booker, Kilmarnock Palace

History of Licketyspit2025-11-19T10:29:26+00:00

History of Licketyspit

Licketyspit has specialised in creating early years theatre and drama work since 2004. Since its conception, the company has worked with over 100,000 children across Scotland.

Click here for a Licketyspit timeline

Early Years

The company was set up as a continuation of the Wee Stories Early Years Project, in which Artistic Director Virginia Radcliffe and her core collaborators – musician Tim Brinkhurst, designer Catherine Lindow, director Matthew Zajac and actors Deborah Arnott, Johnny Austin and Viv Grahame – began to develop a way of working and a body of work for Early Years audiences.

This was the first time a Scottish company had concentrated solely on this audience and it was critically successful and enormously popular. Virginia and her colleagues always ran workshops and engaged with nursery classes during the creative process – producing plays with and for early years children.

This project enabled Virginia to begin her development of what in 2004 would become Licketyspit’s methodology, practice and a house style of performance and engagement with early years audiences, for both nursery/primary and family audiences.

Virginia, a trained actor and theatre director, started creating participative children’s theatre in the late 1990s after her own children were born. When the funding for her post with Wee Stories expired, Virginia set up Licketyspit to continue this exciting work!

Touring Shows

The emergence of Licketyspit, coincided with a stringent period of arts funding in Scotland. With the only potential funding then available to us from the Scottish Arts Council (now Creative Scotland) – project funding – Licketyspit went on to produce at least one show every year for audiences of 7,000-10,000, touring existing shows and developing new ones. Approximately 60% of audiences were public and 40% nursery/schools. The core Licketyspit audience is aged 3-7 years but the work clearly appeals to children up to 12-years and also to parents/carers. It is also highly successful with children with wide-ranging additional support needs and English as an additional language.

LicketyLeap

In 2008, our participative early intervention project LicketyLeap was created, borne out of the clear desire of our audiences to ‘leap’ into our productions.

Since 2012 we’ve delivered LicketyLeap to over 3000 children/families in areas with high levels of multiple-deprivation in Edinburgh, Glasgow, East Lothian and Fife. Participating families are invited to join our Licketyspit Children & Families Network, through which the company develops sustained relationships with families and communities. LicketyLeap has achieved impressive levels of parental engagement, with over 70% of families joining our Children & Families Network.

Porridge & Play

In 2014, the enthusiasm from parents/carers involved in LicketyLeap for ‘more work like this!’ inspired the creation of Porridge & Play – a fully inter-generational drama-led play project for 3-12 year-olds and their families. Porridge & Play takes place in school and community settings, and includes a delicious communal meal, games, rhymes, songs and imaginary play from the Lickety Playcard repertoire, and reflective drawing.

In 2017, we started to adapt and expand Porridge & Play into BookPlay – using a rich chidren’s book as inspiration for imaginary play activities – and Picnic & Play – taking Porridge & Play into museums, parks, beaches and other cultural places.

We now deliver Porridge & Play in 6 community hubs around Glasgow, as well as online.

Storyplay Schools

In 2017 we also started to deliver Storyplay Schools residencies – a pioneering year-round programme of drama-led play and storymaking with whole school communities, including families. Storyplay Schools foster an exuberant culture of shared stories and fair, inclusive play, boosting language and literacy, social skills, confidence, emotional development, and supporting the Scottish Government’s strategy to close the poverty associated attainment gap.

Festivals, Forests and the Future

Since 2022 we have been bringing all our Glasgow families together for city-wide Storyplay Festivals, Storyplay Ceilidhs and Forest Storyplay sessions. We have also increased our delivery of Storyplay training with partners including Scottish Women’s Aid (2021-22).