The Last Witch

Pitlochry Festival Theatre, August 23-October 11

Rona Munro is one of Scotland’s most celebrated contemporary playwrights.

After starting out with 1982’s The Bang And The Whimper, the Aberdeenborn wordsmith produced a string of well-received works including Watching Waiters, Biggest Party In The World and Off The Road, before making an impact on television by penning the Doctor Who adventure Survival in 1989 and an episode of Casualty the following year.

Rona cemented her reputation in the ‘90s with the likes of Bold Girls, Scotland Matters and Haunted. The history graduate also scripted Ken Loach’s 1994 film Ladybird and later collaborated with German director Max Färberböck on his Second World War drama Aimée And Jaguar.

Other notable works from the 58-yearold include Iron – about a mother serving a life-sentence for murder; a stage adaptation of Richard Adams’ classic novel Watership Down and the screenplay for Australian biopic Oranges And Sunshine.

Her most recent stage works are 2014’s Scottish historical epics The James Plays and Scuttlers (2015), which depicted the violent rivalry between 19th Century street gangs in Manchester.

First performed at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival, The Last Witch explores the true story of Janet Horne, who was burned at the stake in the Sutherland town of Dornoch in 1727 – nine years before the law making witchcraft illegal was repealed.

Set in a summer heatwave, Rona’s piece revolves around the confrontation between the charismatic and strongwilled Janet, played by Deirdre Davis, and the sheriff Captain David Ross (David Rankine), who finds the lone woman both disturbing and alluring.

Packed with ambiguity and suspense, the playwright’s feminist perspective is reflected in her passion for the wider context of times in which even lawyers believed in the supernatural.

Living close to nature in the Highland wilderness and refusing to deny or admit the charges against her, Janet represents a massive threat to the established male order, which invests in Capt Ross the power of life and death over both his suspect and her daughter (Fiona Wood).

With Rona nowadays back living in Scotland after a number of years in London, the Pitlochry production is being staged by Hawick-based Firebrand Theatre Company, which specialises in touring reinventions of neglected Scottish plays.

It’s directed by award-winning Firebrand partner Richard Baron, who is also masterminding PFT’s stagings of Ebb and Fosse’s Chicago and Stoppard’s Travesties, and who previously led sitespecific productions at Glasgow’s worldfamous lunchtime theatre programme A Play, A Pie And A Pint.

Playwright Rona Munro’s latest work, The Last Witch, explores the true story of a woman burned at the stake in a Scottish witch trial, such as the one depicted above.