https://dctheaterarts.org/2023/11/13/wickedly-engaging-musical-witch-casts-spell-at-stillpointe-theatre/ Washington, DC's most comprehensive source of performing arts coverage. Mon, 20 Nov 2023 01:14:37 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://dctheaterarts.org/2023/11/13/wickedly-engaging-musical-witch-casts-spell-at-stillpointe-theatre/#comment-763 Mon, 20 Nov 2023 01:14:37 +0000 https://dctheaterarts.org/?p=346498#comment-763 This play calls all these women “witches” even though most of them protested their innocence, and some weren’t even convicted of witchcraft: e.g. during Joan of Arc’s trial, the witchcraft charges were dropped before the final set of 12 accusations were drawn up, and eyewitness accounts (outside the trial transcript) said she was adamantly opposed to witchcraft. English government records and the accounts by people who were at the trial all show that her trial was rigged by the English government on false charges, which maybe is what the play intends to symbolize by depicting her trial as a “rigged game show”, or maybe the play is making some other claim that isn’t historical. In any event, stretching the term “witch” to have a vague, expanding meaning is not a good idea.

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