The Witch of Edmonton (review)

Reviewed by: The Witch of Edmonton Dawn Saliba The Witch of Edmonton Presented by The Red Bull Theater at Saint Clements Theater, New York, New York. January 30, 2011-February 20, 2011. Directed and adapted by Jesse Berger; costumes by Cait O'Connor; sets by Anka Lupes; lighting by Peter West; music by Daniel Levy; sound by Elizabeth Rhodes; With Craig Baldwin (Warbeck, Countryman), Justin Blanchard (Frank Thorney), Adam Green (Cuddy Banks), Christopher Innvar (Sir Arthur Clarington), Christopher McCann (Thorney), Carman Lacivita (Somerton, Countryman), Christina Pumariega (Susan), Amanda Quaid (Katherine), Everett Quinton (Old Ratcliffe/Anne Ratcliffe), André de Shields (Old Banks), Miriam Silverman (Winifred), Derek Smith (Dog), Raphael Nash Thompson (Justice), Sam Tsoutsouvas (Carter), and Charlayne Woodard (Elizabeth Sawyer). In the heart of Manhattan lies a perfect gem of a theatre. The Red Bull theatre company, since its inception in 2003, is dedicated to presenting rarely performed Jacobean plays. Like its seventeenth-century playhouse namesake, the company's intent is to present revenge tragedies, parodies, and tragic-comedies by the likes of Heywood, Marston, Webster, Middleton and, of course Shakespeare; all enjoy engaging reinventions upon this intimate, postmodern stage. This season's The Witch of Edmonton, by Dekker, Ford, and Rowley was a striking production. The 1621 tale is a melodrama involving an [End Page 422] external plot about a murderous bigamist carefully intertwined with a subplot regarding an impoverished woman castigated by her community, beaten by neighbors, and driven to the practice of witchcraft. The drama, which capitalized upon the contemporaneous (and scandalous) witch trial of an actual woman named Elizabeth Sawyer, also presented some biting commentary on social and class structure. Jesse Berger's artful production emphasized the class inequities with which Dekker and his comrades were deeply concerned. Berger's cuts and conflations of the text streamlined the action to highlight the hazards of a hierarchical class structure. The set, designed by Anka Lupes, was a beautiful physical representation of this concept. The bifurcated stage comprised a main area of raked dirt that was the entrance to the "witch's" hovel while the surrounding wooden platform primarily supported the action for the more "civilized" townspeople. This constructed duality exemplified the experience of different strata of society living geographically near one another, yet inhabiting far removed worlds. Both Charlayne Woodard, who played Elizabeth Sawyer, and Derek Smith, her demonic canine familiar, mesmerized the audience with their performances. By placing an African-American actress in the role of the "witch," the casting inevitably raised the specter of past racially motivated mob-lynchings. With echoes of Shylock and Caliban, the accused witch cries: Why should the envious worldThrow all their scandalous malice upon me?'Cause I am poor, deformed and ignorant . . .I for that be made a common sink,For all the filth and rubbish of men's tonguesTo fall and run into? Some call me witch;And being ignorant of myself, they goAbout to teach me how to be one. Clad in rags, Elizabeth Sawyer resembled a modern-day homeless person, while the Devil Dog, with a grotesque mask affixed to his forehead, was reminiscent of a distorted Julie Taymor human puppet—the crutch-like sticks the actor wielded to create the illusion of four legs (and utilized for other exhibitions of power) particularly enhanced this effect. Furthermore, both actors developed their own symbiotic and erotic stylized dance. Woodard's physicality was animalistic while Smith's Butoh-like contorted shape shifting was unearthly and surreal. The pair's highly sensual, yet visceral onstage connection was tangible and chilling. [End Page 423] Along with the subtle commentary on racism, Berger used an important scene to, perhaps inadvertently, comment upon the castigation of homosexuals. He cross-gender cast Everett Quinton (from the Ridiculous Theatre Company) as Anne Ratcliffe, a woman who was bewitched by Elizabeth Sawyer, tormented by her peers, and finally driven to madness and suicide. Unlike the other naturalistic actors of the production, Quinton's acting was overtly garish, almost to the point of caricature. In addition, Berger had him switch roles as Anne's husband, Old Ratcliffe. At one moment the actor burst onto the stage as the first character, only to exit and re...

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