One aspect I struggle with as a critic is when my own weaknesses and biases as a human unfairly influence my feeling about a theatrical production or film. I try my best to be as fair as possible but there are times when my humanity makes it hard. I might be sick or having a bad day making my absorption of a story more challenging. If such a thing happens I try to let my readers know so my biases are acknowledged and up front. Last Saturday was such an experience,
I went to the new play by Pygmalion called Witch, and I was tired. The black box at Rose Wagner was also very warm (they kindly gave water bottles to the audience to help us from getting dehydrated.) Plus there was a massive traffic jam causing me to be 20 minutes late for the play. Basically what I’m trying to say it is it was all not ideal or conducive to the type of analysis I normally provide in a review.
This play is written by playwright Jen Silverman who also penned The Roommate which I was not a big fan of (review here) That play felt phony and I didn’t buy the characters choices. Witch, on the other hand, I enjoyed more because it had more of a sense of whimsy to it, almost like a fable. It reminded me a little bit of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, which is a book I very much enjoy.
The story revolves around a devil that has come to a small town and promises to trade the citizen’s darkest wishes for their souls. It reminded me of Something Wicked This Way Comes which I think is massively underrated book and film. Both stories focus on individuals who let their secret wishes out to a demon-type to unexpected results. Witch is more of a comedy but that sense of desperation can be found in the characters of both stories.
McKell Rae plays the devil Scratch with the right level of mischievousness and energy, getting a lot of laughs from the audience. But my favorite characters are Cuddy played by Amona Faatau and Frank played by Pedro Flores who are friends but are they more than friends? Their tit-for-tat with each other can be very amusing.
The production is directed by Morag Shepherd and and she does a good job, along with her team, of creating the feeling of a Rembrandt painting. The sound design also done by Shepherd also helps the experience feel immersive and gives a sense of urgency to the more comedic scenes. It may be light and silly but it is actually very heavy and important stuff we are dealing with after all.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the pacing of Witch to be a little bit of a struggle but like I said, I was tired so that’s part of it. I wish the story was more focused. Each scene felt like a skit more than a cohesive narrative but they are amusing skits so I didn’t mind it. However, I did prefer over Silverman’s last play that I saw, and if you are in the mood for a small intimate play that amuses and contemplates the greater questions of life than I’d recommend it. Witch is playing at Pygmalion through October 17th and tickets can be purchased here.
Witch is a play by Jen Silverman based on the English Jacobean play The Witch of Edmonton by John Ford, Thomas Dekker and William Rowley. It first premiered in 2018
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