The Wild Wood of Widdershin

With Arthur Miller’s The Crucible possibly the most famous example, witch trials have proven to be fertile theatrical territory - often for exploring the demonisation of female sexuality throughout history.

Here, CraftyMoon Theatre have dramatised the Pendle Hill witch trials of 1612, among the best recorded and well known in England. Specifically, they have focused on 13-year-old Jennet Device, who condemned her own sister to death by accusing her of witchcraft.

The production’s atmosphere is overpoweringly folky, with some decent guitar interludes and lots of songs about nature and the moon. Pitched as a psychological exploration of the sisters’ intense relationship, it lays on the sexual symbolism with a trowel.

Everything is done with admirable sincerity, but very little subtlety. There’s a lot of talk of female bleeding and ominous warnings to avoid men on footpaths, which trips into self-parody in its earnestness. A portentous voiceover occasionally plays over footage of a running river.

Some scenes achieve a dreamlike quality, but this is undermined by the company’s performance style – a lot of hand waving and dramatic sighs punctuated by meaningful pauses. It aims for seriousness but too often falls into bathos.

The Pendle witch trials brim with dramatic potential as a means by which to explore the history of gender politics, social taboos and family dynamics in the seventeenth century. Sadly, this heavy-handed production misses the wood for the trees. In its striving to be profound, it slips into pretention and gives us sub-Angela Carter feminist cliché in place of genuine meaning.