The team at Theatre Arcana bring a folk musical inspired by the true story of Marion Walker and Margaret Aitken, The Witch and the Whistleblower, to The Glitch this month.
The year is 1597. A woman is accused of being a witch. She can save herself, but only by condemning others.
The year is 1597. A community is crumbling. Neighbour turns on neighbour. A town turns on itself.
The year is 1597. A man plays god with a lie. A woman fights back with the truth.
A new folk musical inspired by the true story of Marion Walker and Margaret Aitken, in a time when gossip can kill, whispers become poisonous and speculation becomes a sentence.
Well-respected widow Marion Walker, horrified at what is happening to her town, decides to expose the truth about the witchfinder John Cowper and his newest ‘weapon’: a self-proclaimed witch. Margaret Aitken, under the threat of death, claimed she could identify a witch by a mark on their eyes…so is transformed into the world’s first female witch-hunter.
Where: The Glitch
When: 8-20 Apr (not the 14th)
Ticket link: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/vaultcreativearts/1874827
The Witch and the Whistleblower is based on a true story from the 16th century: what appealed to you about it?
Roo discovered this article about Marion Walker, as a result of Dr Daniel MacLeod’s research: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-50330147
On sharing this article with us, we were all taken by the fact that it was only released in 2019 and that none of us had heard of Marion Walker before. Her role was instrumental in taking down the witch hunts, and she was a phenomenal woman who stepped out of societal norms and expectations to fight for justice. This determination is what hooked us to begin with; the fact that a woman found her strength, voice and power in a society that tried to suppress women so incessantly.Â
In conjunction, we were intrigued by the choices made by Margaret Aitken: a woman who saved her own life by sacrificing hundreds to the witch hunts. We wanted to examine what may have factored into Margaret’s circumstances leading to her decision, and its contrast with the waves that Marion Walker made.
Writing their stories into the same narrative is a fascinating lens into the morality of societies in the 1500s, examining the moral panics and fear-mongering instigated by the atrocity of the witch hunts.
Why is the show a folk musical, and what has the development process been like?
The heart of this show and the themes we explore are rooted in the need for a grounded, elemental sound as opposed to the crazy riffs and belts that new musicals tend to gravitate towards. We wrote our lyrics and book simultaneously, with a force driven by a combination of female rage, poetry and many, many cups of tea.
When we were offered our run at the Glitch, we assembled a larger team, and since then, we have been so fortunate to work with geniuses Ell Thompson and Jake Dufton, our champions of music. They have painted the natural landscapes in the story with their gorgeous composition and musical direction, transforming our lyrics into the works of art they are now! Both of them have been such a gift to this process, and we are incredibly grateful to be surrounded by such a strong network of creatives.Â
You are a team of writer-performers. Did you always write with yourselves in mind, and did you always know who would play who?
When we were conceptualising this idea, Megan definitely had a natural gravitational pull towards playing Margaret: “To me, she is a fascinating character, so I was interested in how, even in the name of self-preservation, could she choose to do such terrible things?”
Roo had an instinctive desire to play Marion because: “She embodies everything about female strength. She’s brave and strong but doesn’t sacrifice any of her care and maternal instinct.”
As these two women are real women from history, we took care to build a fictional world around them with no casting in mind, ensuring that we could write truthful characters, instead of injecting our own vernacular into the dialogue. It was a lot later on in the process that Tia and Lauren selected their roles. Following this, we posted a casting call-out to assemble the rest of the cast, and now we have welcomed 6 more insanely talented actors to the Theatre Arcana fold!
Folk musicals seem to be having a significant resurgence. Why do you think that is?
Much like the towns our story comes from, we are living in a time where people are marginalised, and atrocities are happening so frequently that they are almost normalised. In tougher times, there is nothing more important than solidarity. The origins of folk music are so deeply rooted in community, especially as the songs are built for singing together in harmony. I think there’s something to the theatre community returning to this genre as a plea for support and comfort in the midst of global chaos and destruction.Â
What’s next for the show after it’s run at The Glitch?
We often joke about “when we are finally given our run on Broadway…”, but there is a fair amount of truth behind this comment. We are passionate that, much like the heroine of our story, this small but mighty show deserves to be seen by as many audiences as possible. Musicals based on true stories are important and some of our favourites, namely Come From Away and Operation Mincemeat, both shows which grew from grassroots in Regional or Fringe Theatre.Â
We have been exploring several ideas of where to go next. Further script development, transfers to other theatres, Scotland tours (where these stories derive, featuring Scottish actors), The Palladium, Broadway…all ideas that have been floated around…But I think it’s fair to say that The Witch and The Whistleblower has an optimistic future!