A Tryal of Witches

East Anglia, 1645, a hot and stifling Summer. The air is thick with paranoia and superstition.

Matthew Hopkins, the self-appointed Witchfinder General travels from village to village telling all who will listen about the power of the devil and the prevalence of witches.

As the bloody battles of the civil war draw ever closer, the crops fail and a man drops dead in the alehouse.

A moral panic sets in, they need someone to blame.

Far from being a trial of witches, this was a trial of women.

The play asks what led to one of the most shocking witch trials in British history. 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 new play with original music composed by the band, TRILLS.

Written by Tallulah Brown

Directed by Owen Calvert-Lyons, Director of Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds.

CAST

Claire Storey
Playing Anne Alderman

Claire returns to The Theatre Royal after touring here previously with Northern Broadsides in Hard Times, The Grand Gesture, The Comedy of Errors & Sweet William. Theatre: The Borrowers (Dukes Theatre, Lancaster) Growing Pains in 37 Plays (Hull Truck/RSC) Road (Oldham Coliseum) Adrian Mole The Musical (Hornchurch) The Railway Children (Hull Truck) Wolf/Sweetie in Grimm Tales (Dukes Theatre, Lancaster) Ghost of Christmas Present in Christmas Carol (Theatre by The Lake, Keswick), Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Gravedigger in Hamlet (Shakespeare Rose Theatre, York), Oliver Twist (Hull Truck Theatre), The Cherry Orchard, The Lost Plays Revue, Importance of Being Earnest & Forever Young (Nottingham Playhouse) Arabian Nights (Manchester Library) Animal Farm (Theatr Clywd) Steel Magnolias, The Taming of The Shrew, September In The Rain, Relatively Speaking, Hay Fever (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch) Dolly (New Perspectives) Twelfth Night (Stafford Castle) Honk, Pinafore Swing (Watermill Theatre, Newbury) Animal Farm (Peter Hall Company) Blonde Bombshells of 1943 (Leeds Playhouse, Bolton Octagon and Hampstead Theatre) Buddy (Strand Theatre & Tour) Patsy Cline-The Musical (Tour) Elvis-The Musical (West End and Tour) Peer Gynt (RSC at the Barbican). Television: Call The Midwife, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, Doctors, and Emmerdale. Claire is an audiobook narrator of more than 100 titles.

Emily Hindle
Playing Rose and Matthew Hopkins

Emily is an actress, musician, writer and theatre maker. She trained at East 15 Acting School.
Theatre credits include, The Gunpowder Plot (West End/Tower Vaults), Hide and Seek and Hoarding (Leicester Curve), War of the Worlds (Dot Dot Dot productions) Bitter, (The New Diorama) and her self penned play Toothache (The Space). Her TV credits include, Miss Austen (BBC), Casualty (BBC), The Start Up (Amazon Prime).
As a writer she is currently under commission by MAST studios and Theatre For Life, an arts organisation for young people. She has composed music for the shows FIVE:EIGHT, (Bernie Grant Arts Centre) and for The Feeling Of Knowing Something is Wrong But it Isn’t (Mayflower, Southampton).

Shaniya Hira
Playing Mary, John Stearne and Sir Matthew Hale

Shaniya Hira is an actress trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Tring Park. She makes her professional debut in A Tryal of Witches. Her stage credits include playing Vashti in Tiger Country at Tobacco Factory Theatres, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Lucinda/Giant in Into the Woods at The Redgrave Theatre.
Her work also spans radio and voice acting, with credits including Chances and The Wonderful World of Dissocia. Her other work includes Switch Board and The Future is Beige at the Bristol Old Vic Weston Studio. Combining strong physical theatre skills, dance training, and experience in audio drama, Shaniya is a dynamic performer with a diverse and accomplished skill set.

Rachel Heaton
Playing Sarah and Judge Godbold

Rachel grew up in Suffolk and has recently relocated back to the area. She played Miss Hardbroom in the The Worst Witch on a National Tour and in the West End (Vaudeville Theatre) , which won an Olivier Award for Best Family Show. Other theatre credits include The Odd Couple ( Frinton Summer Theatre), Creditors (Jack Studio Theatre) and Newsrevue (Canal Cafe Theatre). TV credits include BBC’s Doctors, Holby Blue, Rocket Man, In 2 Minds, All About Me and Brave New World for Sky TV. Rachel has a particular interest in experimental and site-responsive theatre and was in the cast of Unchain Me by dreamthinkspeak which headlined the Brighton Festival in 2022. She wrote and directed the experimental theatre piece ‘Front’ for Brighton Fringe Festival in 2011. Described as “engaging, provocative and inventive”, the play with original soundtrack was performed in an Oxfam shop window, viewed from the street, and listened to through headphones.
She has recently completed an MA in Music and Sonic Media at the University of Sussex and continues to explore her practice of sound, performance and film.

Lucy Tuck
Playing Reverend John and Nathaniel

Lucy Tuck trained as a “Triple Threat” 3 decades ago and her career has been varied. Early work ranged from classic musicals, European touring, Dance-Theatre to the RSC’s Chronicles Of Narnia. In 2005 she became an associate artist with all-female company Foursight Theatre, making new biographical pieces based on ordinary women with extraordinary lives. A Tryal Of Witches feels like a fond return and she is delighted to be on board!
Recent work to date includes: “There’s Something About Typhoid Mary” (tour and forthcoming); “As She Likes It” (tour); “The Snow Queen” (Chester Storyhouse), Hallé Orchestra Christmas Concert; “Oi Frog!” (West End, Olivier nominated). “The Borrowers”; “Sleeping Beauty”; “A 101 Dalmatians”; “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (World Tour); “The Last Voyage Of Sinbad The Sailor”; “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “Cinderella. A Fairy Tale” - all for Bristol Old Vic and Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol – her base. She has enjoyed doing 2 plays by Maxine Peake - Yorkshire cyclist Beryl Burton in “Beryl” and “Queens Of The Coal Age” as Elaine for the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle Under Lyme.

Friday 7th - Saturday 22nd March

Tickets £12-£30.

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