The witch is back… Vinegar Tom, OVO at The Maltings Theatre

All photos by Pavel Gonevski

"Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, But I think… OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS! 1-2-3-4!" Marianne Joan Elliott-Said aka Poly Styrene, April 1977

Caryl Churchill wrote this play in 1976 drawing allusions between the treatment of women even after early equalities legislation and the witch hunts of the seventeenth century, we watch it now and wonder how much has really changed. With new attacks on feminism from unexpected quarters and a government intent on reducing its own accountability whilst pushing the individual’s responsibility to “behave”, are we heading backwards? Is it time for women to “make more noise” again?

It certainly doesn’t feel like Churchill’s cries from the heart are in anyway anachronistic and the sheer, vicious illogicality of the witch hunt – the ducking stooled innocent if drowned, guilty if alive or the pin-pricked witch who either bleeds or hides her pain – reflects so much about the collapse of reason over the last ten years of global politics. Hyper-Normalisation and the Digitally Divided, a new Age of Conspiracy… modern medieval minds mystified by incessant waves of social media myth and legend as the men in black laugh.

Oh, nobody sings about it, but it happens all the time…

Matthew Parker’s direction is as theatrically fertile as they come and he has focused this 45^th anniversary production on the 1640s, the Civil War and the time of Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins who may have been responsible for the deaths of as many as 300 women between 1644-7. Even for the time this was extraordinary – in times of flux, all kinds of madness persist in the search for someone to blame, other than the powers of darkness.

Which is where we begin as Alice, played by the extraordinary Emilia Harrild, who combines fierce intelligence with the anger and vulnerability of youth, actually dances with the Devil, or at least a man who claims that he is (the multi-faceted Jon Bonner). It’s a bruising exchange showing Alice’s bravery as well as passion, yet she can’t connect to the man, who feels able to – literally – put her down. But he leaves his mark and she dreams of him…

Emilia Harrild

Alice lives with her mother Joan (Jill Priest, wonderfully spikey and expressive) who whilst she struggles to keep them both in food and drink relies sometimes on the kindness of neighbours, Margery (Cathy Conneff, spirited and yet fragile) and Jack (Alan Howell, as black-clouded sullen as most bass players) but their patience starts to wear thin as she asks for some yeast but Margery, struggling to get butter from her ailing cows, is now looking for a scape goat. Jack, as with Alice’s man in black, is a poor excuse for a man, constantly putting upon Margery, sexually harassing Alice and generally proving faithless. 

Jack isn’t capable of accepting responsibility for his own laziness and poor judgement, he even blames Alice for his erectile disfunction and pressed her to restore him… which, with a weary sigh, she does, only leading him to conclude that she therefore must be a witch. The play is not without humour – light and dark always perfectly balanced to often devastating effect in Mr Parker’s plays – and it comes naturally out of situations we can still recognise.

Betty (Lauren Somerville, who provides some subline counterpoint and harmonies), the young daughter of a wealthy landowner, refused to marry, is locked up by her parents whilst Alice’s friend Susan (Melissa Shirley-Rose, wining us over with her emotional clarity and honest confusion) is God-fearing and yet repeatedly pregnant… the women seek the help of herbalist and suspected witch Ellen the Cunning Woman (Lotte Davies, so funny in the closing duet and with a gut-wrenching cold-eyed look of terror for her character's hanging) who helps them with a potion for Alice to win back her dark lover and provides Susan, a draught to rid her of an unwanted baby… She is a “good witch” as the witch hunter Packer (Mr Bonner again, this time even purer, human, evil) later remarks, but the only good witch quickly becomes a dead witch in his practice.

Margery alarmed by her dying cattle and Jon mostly by Alice’s refusal to go with him, accuse Joan of being a witch and they too go to Ellen who provides then with a mirror in which they will find their truth… clearly, they only have themselves to see and blame but they persuade themselves that they see sorcerous Joan.

Cathy Conneff and Alan Howell see what they want to see

“Not for me to say one's a witch or not a witch. I give you the glass and you see in it what you see in it.”

Witch Master Packer arrives and is soon convincing the locals that the two women must be witches by whichever signal suits his agenda… fake news or not, fear leads folk to follow his judgement. Susan is so confused that she outs herself as a witch for her association with Alice even as she betrays her in her hysteria. Witch Finder Hopkins often travelled with a left-hand woman and here Emma Thrower is perfectly horrible as the deluded sidekick/enabler, the very bad, Goody. She also keeps great time on the drums.

Flavouring the action and adding real visceral impact are seven songs with lyrics originally written by Churchill added to new music written by composer Maria Haïk Escudero. We’d entered the performance space to PJ Harvey, from Let England Shake, and sure enough Matthew quotes the Abbotsbury Muse as an influence along with other women who are supernaturally talented, First Aid Kit (you must hear their version of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs!), Kate Bush, and Joni Mitchell… the last two, surely actually magical!?

The songs are performed by the entire cast and so we get part play/part gig and the most immersive and engaging experience you can expect with your socks on. Not only are the “band” exceptionally tight - and it must be so hard to play in character, that’s rubbing your tummy and patting your head really hard - but they have a charismatic lead singer in Alice/Emilia Harrild who knows how to front as well as sing. She also has the best haircut in Hertfordshire and plays the cello in Rome’s Colosseum, there’s nothing usual about her.

Priest and Davies selling it!!

The music is punchy and rocks authentically, bringing my old hero Poly Styrene to mind whilst also adding so much energy to the play’s central theme. Punk rock and punk play are both far from dead 45 years on! A splendid ensemble all of whom leave everything on the stage and deliver so many moments of magic proving that this woman’s work is never done when it comes to the dreaming. Wow.

The band/cast are all clearly having a ball and that’s another Parker hallmark, they play hard but also work hard to a woman and man throughout and there’s a creative camaraderie that undeniably reinforces their common purpose in proving the vibrancy, wicked humour and enduring quality of this play. 

IThankYou Theatre Rating: ***** Vinegar Tom delivers exactly what we have been missing these last 20 months – magical theatre but then, as Sir Elton almost said, the witch is back! 

Vinegar Tom plays until 6^th November so please get in quick, details on their website, park on Level 2 of the Maltings multi-storey and you’re there! The Maltings is also a lovely airy venue and feels totally Covid safe so I would heartily recommend the whole enterprise to those who are returning in increasing numbers to live performance.