Sometimes, good theatre can veer audiences in another direction, leaving them scratching their heads and wondering where everything is going.
Such is the case with Soulpepper’s opening-night production of Jen Silverman’s Witch.
But stay the course.
Playwright Jen Silverman writes powerful, modern vernacular dialogue that will appeal to twenty-first-century audiences. There are notable monologues that actors may want to include in their individual audition storehouse. This marvellous cast delivers convincing onstage performances, guided and underscored by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster’s confident direction.
Some sound choices have been made in the visual presentation. Lighting Designer Jareth Li sharply captures the effects of oil lamps, burning fires, and the evening setting of moonbeams. Nick Blais’s set places the action in the middle, with the audience seated on opposite sides. On one side is the sitting room of the wealthy Arthur Banks, complete with a regal chair raised on a dais. What appears to be a large cauldron sits centre stage (and I thought I saw the outline of a pentagram inside). Ting-Huan 挺歡 Christine Urquhart’s costumes are perfect re-creations of the 1620s. Olivia Wheeler’s music selection nicely sets the mood of the era. I also liked hearing the crackling of the fire sound coming from the huge cauldron.
Witch is based on events from 1621 in the Parish of Edmonton on the outskirts of London, England. A woman named Elizabeth Sawyer was brought to court under the Witchcraft Act of King James I. She was accused of horrible events and eventually convicted and hanged. By the end of 1621, playwrights Dekker, Ford and Rowley had mounted a play about this trial, titled The Witch of Edmonton, and separated the story of Elizabeth from that of two men.
Silverman’s play focuses on Scratch (Nicholas Eddie), the devil, and two ‘brothers’: Cuddy Banks (Thomas Mitchell Barnet) and Frank Thorney (Shawn Ahmed). Cuddy is the biological son of wealthy landowner Sir Arthur Banks (Oliver Dennis). Frank is the ward and unofficial adopted son of Sir Arthur.
Cuddy and Frank do not get along and are constantly at odds. The emotionally overwrought, scruffy-looking Cuddy is a whimpering mess. The handsome Frank does everything possible to rob Cuddy of his rightful inheritance when Sir Arthur dies. Frank is willing to sell his soul to the devil to do so. To add further strife, both men are also interested in Sir Arthur’s harried servant, Winnifred (Heeyun Park 박희윤).
Amid this turmoil among the three men, Tantoo Cardinal plays Elizabeth Sawyer, a witch who wants nothing to do with the townpeople who have shunned her. Instead, Sawyer seems resigned to a life of solitude in the town and appears interested in the romance that Scratch might be conjuring for her.
Based on the press information and the synopsis on the Soulpepper website, I thought Witch would be more like the heavy drama of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, written during the McCarthy era and based on the Salem Witch Trials. The show program’s cover, an eye-catching photo of Tantoo Cardinal as Elizabeth Sawyer, leads me to believe so.
Sometimes, surprises in the theatre make the drive on a cold, wintry evening worth it.
For one, Witch’s contextual humour draws the audience into the immediacy of the moment. Thomas Mitchell Barnet’s whining about being only interested in perfecting his ‘Morris Dancing’ (and his appearance in full costume near the end of the play) draws raucous laughter. Oliver Dennis commands as the overbearing, childish Sir Arthur. His bellowing for servant Winnifred, who drops whatever she’s doing and runs onstage at his command, works well thanks to Heeyun Park’s timing for appropriate comic effect. Nicolas Eddie’s Scratch is smarmy and charming.
It is the intense, truth-based drama that makes this opening night memorable.
After Sir Arthur leaves, the chemistry between Park’s Winnifred and Ahmed’s Frank is palpable and gritty. Their standoff with each other about halfway through the play is one of Witch’s performance highlights. I find myself, eyes darting back and forth between Park and Ahmed, not wanting to miss anything said between the two as their conversation grows heated when the truth emerges.
Tantoo Cardinal’s subtle, understated performance as Elizabeth Sawyer remains graceful and focused. While the suspicion of witchcraft ominously hovers over Elizabeth, Cardinal moves quietly yet firmly from the accusations to a person like any other, one who toys with and considers an offer from Scratch to sell her soul for even a moment’s happiness and connection with another person. There’s an extremely touching moment between Cardinal and Eddie where the audience gasps in horror, thinking something is going to happen. The exact opposite happens. The same scenario occurs between Ahmed’s Frank and Barnet’s Cuddy, not too long before. Hearing the audience’s response to both moments is another highlight of the production.
Nicholas Eddie’s final moment as Eddie in his address to the audience centre stage become goose bump inducing. It’s ominous. It’s breathtaking.
And it’s one that might hopefully spark conversation long after the curtain comes down.
In her Director’s Note, Courtney writes that the playwright describes Witch as ‘choosing a different shaped window to look at what’s happening right now.’ And what’s happening right now isn’t that far removed from what’s happening in the play. There are divisions among people based on who we associate with. The idea of getting back and ostracizing others for whatever reason runs rampant.
Lancaster’s last comments are about love in Witch. Do the characters in the play understand what love is?
Most importantly, do we as an audience understand love?
Questions upon questions upon questions.
That’s good theatre.
Witch gets us to think, even though we may not have answers and may not understand everything.
And that’s okay.
Running time: approximately 95 minutes with no intermission.
The production runs until March 1, 2026, in the Michael Young Theatre in the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Lane, Toronto’s Distillery District. For tickets: soulpepper.ca or call (416) 866-8666.
SOULPEPPER presents
Witch by Jen Silverman
Directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster
Set Designer: Nick Blais
Costume Designer: Ting-Huan 挺歡 Christine Urquhart
Lighting Designer: Jareth Li
Sound Designer and Composer: Olivia Wheeler
Choreographer: Monica Dottor
Stage Manager: Laura Baxter
Performers: Tantoo Cardinal, Shawn Ahmed, Thomas Mitchell Barnet, Oliver Dennis, Nicholas Eddie, Heeyun Park 박희윤
