Simon Ward reviews The Witch and The Whistleblower at The Glitch

With all due respect to modern-day followers of Wicca, we would normally associate witches with either fairytales or the distant past. By contrast, ‘whistleblower’ is a much more recent term with connotations of corporate or professional wrongdoing. By juxtaposing the two, Arcana Theatre seem to be inviting us to see the parallels between the story they are telling and our own times. The Witch and The Whistleblower is a hugely ambitious project – they have taken a snippet of recently-discovered history and turned it into a full-blown folk musical. With book and lyrics by cast members Roo Berry, Megan Farquhar, Lauren Foreman and Tia Ray, and music by Jake Dufton and Ell Thompson, they fill the notoriously tiny space of The Glitch to the brim. Director Evie Kerr does a magnificent job in managing the entrances and exits so that we remain focused on the story. As with all small venues with no allocated seating, however, there is a benefit in getting seats in the middle at the front for the best experience.

The play opens with an ensemble piece celebrating the life of its small town setting, where everyone looks out for each other and the worst thing that people get up to is gossip about who has been seen with whom. Social life centres around the inn run by widow Marion Walker (Roo Berry). But the tranquility of the town is set to be thrown into disarray by the arrival of black-cloaked witchfinder John Cowper (Dan Davison). His accomplice is a self-confessed witch, Margaret Aitken (Megan Farquhar), who has saved her own life by agreeing to ‘use her powers’ to identify other witches. The machinations that ensue leave no-one in the town untouched.

With affecting and catchy music, a multi-talented and versatile cast and a powerful soundtrack, a difficult and, indeed, terrifying story is well told. The writers do well to eschew the clichés of the genre – while Cowper is undoubtedly a villain, he is probably convinced of his own righteousness, and challenged by the need to meet the quotas of witches which the King’s paranoia demands. Similarly, with Aitken, it would have been easy to portray her as simply driven by self-preservation, whereas here we see that she is trying, imperfectly but as best she can, to at least save some potential victims. We see, too, how difficult it is for Walker to challenge what is happening – how can she be right when the King, the Law and the Church all speak as one against her.

Davison’s performance is literally huge – he can barely fit inside the small room and when he roars the walls shake. All the more impressive then, that the simple forces of decency, loyalty and trust can be assembled to thwart him, if only for now, and in this place. A small victory, then, but a valuable one, duly celebrated and honoured in this powerful and moving show.

The Witch and The Whistleblower is running at The Glitch, 134 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7AE until Monday 20th April