THEATRE REVIEW: The Last Witch

It can be difficult to envisage a time when in Scotland, if a woman was in any way perceived as peculiar or outspoken, she could easily be accused of witchcraft. An accusation that would often result in a grisly end for the convicted. In 1736 these witchcraft acts were finally repealed, nine years after the last trial of the last witch, Janet Horne. It is her story that is told in the revival of Rona Munro’s play, The Last Witch. Directed by Richard Baron this is a melodic piece of Scottish writing which tells a gripping true tale.

Janet Horne is a charismatic and unapologetically independent woman who lives with her daughter in the village of Dornach. As she spends her time celebrating her alleged but never witnessed magical gifts and expertise in witchcraft, her 17 year old daughter worries where their next meal is coming from. However food and help can come easy when Janet’s neighbours are fearful of incurring her wrath in the form of a curse on their home and land. But fear only lasts so long before Janet is accused of witchcraft by the very same neighbours that have had enough of her tricks and seek to have her brought down by the law. Was it all smoke and mirrors? Or is Janet all that she claims and more than she appears?

The struggles to be a woman of strong opinion and will are being astonishingly heard all too often in recent times, and Janet Horne’s story taps into these struggles in the treatment of her for merely being who she was, living as she liked and voicing her views. Munro’s script lends itself to these struggles while also enchanting through passionate and powerful soliloquies and drops of humour for good measure. The audience are treated to live singing and music performed on stage by the actors, as well as the fierce performances of Deirdre Davis as Janet Horne and Fiona Wood as her daughter Helen. The two are outstanding both individually and in their portrayal of the mother and daughters fraught but loving relationship. The set stuns as a round screen looms over the stage projecting a harvest moon, to light up the stage & lure the audience into a world of witchcraft, even if witchcraft is perhaps not at play. Richard Baron has taken Munro’s work and fashioned a spellbinding thriller with intense performances and impressive visuals that make it hard to fault.