by an anonymous guest critic

This show is the very modern telling of a witch trial that you’ve likely never heard of. In 1605, in a small town in Oxfordshire after an altercation at a football match, Brian Gunter tries to get his neighbour Elizabeth Gregory hung as a witch, blaming his daughter Annie’s mysterious illness on her. Without wanting to spoil the story, it doesn’t quite work out as he planned.

The play is introduced by “a historian! – not an actor playing a historian”.  The historian then picks up the guitar to soundtrack the rest of this rollicking, chaotic storytelling show. It is somewhat all over the place; this is throw-everything-at-the-wall theatre. The cast of talented performers give us huge energy as they sing, rap, dance and magic trick their way through this offbeat and anarchic show. There are physical theatre dance breaks involving witches, familiars, and a squeezy bottle of honey. Not everything works. The amount of shouting involved is quite irritating, and the show is rather one-note for something that has so many elements within it.

There are definitely positives, however. it’s an interesting dissection of another historical event in which women have very little agency. The story is told through court records, in which their lives are judged and recorded for posterity by men. The all-female company are keen to point out the weight of the patriarchy sitting behind and supporting Brian Gunter’s claims, even bringing in King James the First for a hilarious cameo to pass judgement on the trial.

Overall, this is a fast-paced and entertaining show that brings a creative and hilariously anachronistic style to the telling of a lost historic drama.

Gunter runs through 27 August.

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