We are in Salem a year before the witchcraft trials of 1692. Rumblings of wrongdoing are filtered through children’s games, night-time conversations and the gossip or grisly rumour that wafts into the lives of young Betty Parris (Sabrina Wu) and Abigail Williams (Anna Fordham).
Talene Monahon’s play, performed as part of Footprints festival, speaks to the historical events of the trials, and, specifically it seems, to Arthur Miller’s 1953 play, The Crucible.
Directed by Anna Ryder, we follow 10-year-old Betty as she plays her games of make-believe, and cousin, Abigail, barely 12 when she is sent to work for John Proctor. Not much is explained but there is plenty of atmosphere. The poppets that the town will claim are witch’s tools are still children’s toys but acquiring a sinister edge. The girls are drawn to the woods but also fear it, and Mary Warrren (Lydia Larson) has the first of the fits that will lead to Salem’s mass hysteria.
Those who know Miller’s play will pick up on the bigger resonances, but those who do not may be lost. Monahon’s script is full of promise, and some lovely writing, but the drama does not have a distinct enough shape and comes to feel too elliptical. Language is modern, with plenty of swearing, and it half works: the girls use terms such as “chill” and “hey, bitches”. Satan has “hit you up”, says Mercy (Amber Sylvia Edwards), accusingly.
There is an integrity to showing the internal processes that will lead these girls to become the central accusers in the trials. But insights into their thinking are whimsical, repetitive or opaque, with no real emotional freight.
It is excellently performed nonetheless, especially Edwards’ viciously rumour-mongering Mercy. Natalie Johnson’s set design is a room with a bed, effective in its stripped puritan simplicity, and Bella Kear’s sound design of hums and whistles is evocative in its blend of innocence and dread.
There are sweet moments of sisterly intimacy between Betty and Abigail, and the latter’s adolescent sexual awakenings are subtly captured, although her relationship with John Proctor is conveyed in obvious and repeated ways.
Ultimately, we do not feel the fear or foreboding in these girls’ worlds despite the atmosphere building. It remains a too circular dramatic exercise.
• At the Jermyn Street theatre, London, until 27 January.
