With impressive performances all round, particularly from Margherita Philipp and Emile Halpin, Carol Churchill’s Vinegar Tom is a bold and powerful feminist perspective of the sixteenth century witch trials in Britain. As hysteria takes hold the women of a small village are, one after another, accused, tortured and executed at the hands of a male witch finder (Halpin) and his all too gleeful assistant. From the outset Churchill’s message, under the direction of Sarah McCready, is made emphatically clear as ‘Man’ (Halpin, in the most stirring of his three roles) declares “I am the Devil” and, after satisfying his own desires leaves a desperate Alice (Philipp), scrambling for his name.
Certainly not for the faint of heart, the production might prove over-confrontational for some. The ‘examinations’ of the witch finder, conducted on bloodstained sheets are frequent, brutal and make for purposefully uncomfortable viewing. The use of pointed sticks as the instruments of this torture serving as an all too blatant reminder of Churchill’s agenda..
George Feld and Aidan Clifford, as ‘Sprenger and Kramer’, authors of The Malleus Maleficarum witch-hunter’s manual, have enjoyable chemistry, and their poetic diatribe provides a little light relief alongside the traumas of the main play. Although, even this is short-lived, as their tone soon sours and they are interrupted by the modern-dress chorus. The chorus themselves effectively dominant the stage during their scenes, working successfully as a unit.
The male dominant society of the 1500s is made abundantly clear, although I fear the original 1970s preformance, which used choral settings to translate this impression, was perhaps more convincing, and indeed more necessary.
So long as the audience is prepared for what the play is about, and for the message it delivers with every line, they will undoubtedly be impressed. The staging is simple but effective, the direction smart and mature, and the acting is largely striking. I would suggest that a visit be carefully considered, and may not appeal to many. Go to be provoked rather than entertained, for this is a performance of extremes.
Four stars
Vinegar Tom is at the Wadham Moser, 16-20 February, 7.30pm
