Arts & Culture

Celebrated theatre company Out of Joint brings its new production, Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern, to Salisbury Playhouse for one week only from 10-14 November.

Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern is inspired by one of the last major witch trials in England. The charges brought against Jane Wenham, the cunning woman of a small Hertfordshire village in 1712, provoked a nationwide pamphlet war.

BAFTA award-winning playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz dramatises Wenham’s extraordinary story for our times. Alive with the mysteries of sex, nature and the supernatural, this gripping new play blasts society’s hunger to find – and create – witches.

The play is directed by Ria Parry, whose recent work at Salisbury Playhouse includes On Golden Pond and Bike, and designed by James Button (On Golden Pond and Worst Wedding Ever).

[caption id=“attachment_6025” align=“alignnone” width=“300”]An Out of Joint, Watford Palace Theatre and Arcola Theatre co-production, in association with Eastern Angles. Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern. Photo Credit: ¬©Richard Davenport 2015, Richard@rwdavenport.co.uk, 07545642134 Photo Credit: ¬©Richard Davenport 2015[/caption]

Director Ria Parry said “Part of what draws me to Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern is that it resonates with issues we are still facing today. In many areas of the world, women are still horribly oppressed, and even closer to home there is a tendency to “witch-hunt” not just women, but anyone we fear or don’t understand – to persecute or demonize a particular group in order to protect yourself or your own. It’s an us and them mentality – a war on the weak, an inability to cope with or accept “difference”. There is an intimate look at the power and hypocrisy of religion in the play, which brilliantly interweaves with the community’s treatment of women. Jane Wenham is set in 1712, but it is disturbingly relevant to now”.

Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern contains some swearing and adult themes and runs in the Main House at Salisbury Playhouse from Tuesday 10 to Saturday 14 November. For tickets or further information please contact the ticket office on 01722 320333 or visit www.salisburyplayhouse.com.