Hollywood has developed a formula for success. Heroes and villains act in specific ways that make them heroic and villainous and these actions have become predictable. In the real world, things are more complex. At least, this is what Baddies would like us to believe.
On its surface, Baddies is an exploration of the way humanity has become oversimplified by sensationalist filmmaking. It does this through the story of one typecasted actor - Serg - attempting to bring some relatability to the role of the villain he repeatedly plays. The story picks up when he is cast alongside a former classmate named Joe in a blockbuster biopic based on the life of a murderer named Healy - the real focus of the plot - played by Ignatius Harling.
Early in the play, Healy finds his way onto the movie set having recently been released from prison, insisting that his love for his daughter be showcased along with his violent crimes. The film producers have no interest in humanising their villain, who sincerely worries if his daughter will ever know about his life beyond his murders.
For much of the play, the heroes and villains of the play find themselves switched, but ultimately Baddies is guilty of the same over-simplified characterisation that it finds fault with in Hollywood. The only character with a genuinely complex nature is Healy, but even he immediately falls pretty squarely into the mold of the anti-hero by balancing his violent nature with his love of family and story of rehabilitation. His is the side the audience is drawn to simply because he longs for something good outside of himself.
For the most part, the acting in the play is fairly good, but Harling’s penchant for speaking towards the audience when the rest of the cast speaks the majority of their lines facing each other is distracting. Black, white and grey are used in the costumes of a few of the characters involved in the moral debate, visually complicating the divide between goodie and baddie.
Overall, Baddies attempts to make some interesting points on the nuanced nature of personality and the failings of art to capture it accurately, but much of what it says is stirred up and confused by its last scene which is far too short given its implications for the rest of the plot. Ultimately, it is difficult to understand what, if anything, Baddies is really trying to say about Hollywood and its depiction of reality, since it deliberately runs itself into the same traps it was pointing out to everyone else.
