Stage Histories
Edited by Elizabeth Schafer| Type | Date(s) | Theatre | Director | Company / Cast | Details |
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The Late Lancashire Witches |
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| Performance | August 1634 | Globe | King's Men | External ReviewsNathaniel Tomkyns. letter of 16 August 1634 to Sir Robert Phelips in SomersetComments from SourceHere hath been lately a new comedy at the Globe called The Witches of Lancashire, acted by reason of the great concourse of people three days together. The third day I went with a friend to see it, and found a greater appearance of fine folk, gentlemen and gentlewomen, than I thought had been in town in the vacation. The subject was of the sleights and passages [episodes, actions] done or supposed to be done by these witches, sent from thence hither, and other witches and their familiars: of their nightly meetings in several places; their banqueting with all sorts of meat and drink conveyed unto them by their familiars upon the pulling of a cord; the walking of pails of milk by themselves and (as they say of children) all alone; the transforming of men and women into the shapes of several creatures and especially of horses by putting an enchanted bridle into their mouths; their posting to and from places far distant in an incredible short time; the cutting off of a witch-gentlewoman.s hand in the form of a cat, by a soldier turned miller, known to her husband by a ring thereon (the only tragical part of the story); the representing of wrong and putative fathers in the shape of mean persons to gentlemen by way of derision; the tying of a knot at a marriage (after the French manner) to cassate [nullify] masculine ability; and the conveying away of the good cheer and bringing in a mock feast of bones and stones instead thereof, and the filling of pies with living birds and young cats, etc. And though there be not in it (to my understanding) any poetical genius, or art, or language, or judgment to state or tenet of witches (which I expected), or application to virtue, but full of ribaldry and of things improbable and impossible, yet in respect of the newness of the subject (the witches being still visible and in prison here) and in regard it consisteth from the beginning to the end of odd passages and fopperies [foolish or absurd actions] to provoke laughter, and is mixed with divers songs and dances, it passeth for a merry and excellent new play. Per acta est fabula. Vale.CommentsSee LW Introduction. |
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| Performance | 12 August 2001 | Globe Education Centre | James Wallace | Cast ListPrologue - Liza HaydenArthur - Nicholas Rowe Shakestone - Tom Cornford Bantam - Dan Hawksford Whetston - Richard Lumsden Generous - David Delve Mistress Generous - Beverley Klein Robert - Tony Bell Mal Spencer - Lou Gish Meg Johnson - Cherry Morris Mawd Hargreave - Olivia MacDonald Gillian Dickinson - Caroline Harris Doughty - Michael Cronin Seely - Robert Wilby Gregory Seely - James Wallace Lawrence - Mike Rogers Joan Seely - Virginia Denham Winny Seely - Karen Hayley Parnell - Sabina Netherclift Soldier - Karl Stimpson Miller - James Marsh Boy, the Miller's son - Nicholas Kollgaard Epilogue - Liza Hayden |
Comments from SourceJames Wallace's 'A Note on the Staged Reading' is part of the introduction to Gabriel Egan's edition of the play, called The Witches of Lancashire. London: Globe Education and Nick Hern Books, 2002. pp vi-viii. |
| Performance | 17 August 2012 | Lancaster Castle | Eleanor Rycroft | ad hoc Cast ListMaster Generous - Tim WilderspinMistress Generous - Vic McGlynn Robin - Katie Murray The Boy - Jordan Kemp Goody Dickieson - Helen Ostovich Mall Spencer - Chloe Buckley Meg - Julie Kemp Maud - Helen Davies Gill - Sharyn Galbraith Seely - David Findlay Joan Seely - Alison Findlay Gregory Seely - Robert Rindlay Winny Seely - Eleanor Findlay Lawrence - Ken Johnston Parnell - Olga Horner Doughty - Meg Twycross Arthur - Andrew Tate Bantam - Robert Poole Shakestone / Miller - Michael Nunn Whetstone - Beth Hadley Soldier - Steve Curtis Piper - Bird Tyson |
External ReviewsMichael Nunn, Review – The Late Lancaster Witches by Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome (1634): A Rehearsed Reading performed in Lancaster Castle on the eve of the four-hundredth anniversary of the two-day Pendle Witch Trials of 1612, Lancaster News, 19 August 2012, commented the performance 'was a real triumph as the spellbound audience readily attested'.External SourceEleanor Rycroft, 'Staging The Late Lancashire Witches at Lancaster Castle', Preternature, eds. Alison Findlay and Liz Oakley-Brown, 3.1 (2014). Meg Findlay, 'The Late Lancashire Witches: The Girls Next Door', Preternature 3.1 (2014) |