Theatre announces cast for ‘A Tryal of Witches’

The cast for the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds’ in-house spring production of “A Tryal of Witches”, which saw 16 women hung in one day, has been revealed.

Written by East Anglian playwright Tallulah Brown, the play follows the lives of Suffolk villagers as Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, stokes the flames of witchcraft and misinformation.

The production runs from March 7 to 22 and features Claire Storey (pictured above) as Anne Alderman, Emily Hindle as Rose and Matthew Hopkins, Shaniya Hira as Mary, John Stearne and Sir Matthew Hale, Rachel Heaton as Sarah and Judge Godbold, and Lucy Tuck as Reverend John and Nathaniel.

The story is based on rural East Anglia in 1645 when Matthew Hopkins, infamous Witchfinder General, is roaming from village to village in the stifling summer heat.

He broadcasts his message detailing the prevalence of witches and the power of the devil all while searching out the next “witches” to be prosecuted.

As the bloody battles of the civil war draw ever closer, farmers’ crops fail and a man drops dead in the alehouse, the villagers need something to blame. Witches. But this is not a trial of witches, this is a trial of women. 

The trial in Bury St Edmunds was the first time women were convicted using “spectral evidence” – the belief that witches could be in two places at one time.

“A Tryal of Witches” asks “What led to one of the most shocking witch trials in British history?”

It explores the lives of Suffolk villagers as the witch rumours ebb and flow around the county.