WITCH HUNT
Norwoch Arts Centre
As a follow up to their sell-out, award winning show ‘Enter The Dragons’, A&E Comedy return with the offbeat, crudely hilarious ‘Witch Hunt’. It’s a two-woman show (with only one actor performing according to one part of the duo), set in the catastrophic modern-day world where the witches are now the predators. With a mix of physical theatre, magic tricks, and puppetry, it’s a real spectacle of the different caricatures of women from the 17th Century to now, and the many tricks they have up their sleeves to challenge the patriarchy.
The audience is introduced to two hags, one with miniature claw-like hands, the other with talons that could yank your whole face off. After a frightening stare and a grin of their gross fake teeth, they ask the audience, “Are you sitting uncomfortably?”. We’re told from the get-go that there will be audience participation (“the worst torture imaginable”) along with witchcraft and magic. After a scrambling for fake teeth with their awkward sized hands, the pair come out skipping along the stage as Hansel and Gretel with long plaits and a lederhosen. Hansel goes missing and Gretel gets lost in woods filled with dog poo and brambles, so she does a slow-dance of the macarena and sighs: “alone in the woods and I’m only eight-and-a-half”. This makes the audience cackle and it’s when we see the return of the witch that we get the start of the ongoing banter between young women and old women. Young Gretel thinks the witch is jealous of her beauty and looks, whilst the witch tells her she’s “been there, done that, got the t-shirt” and now she’s living happily alone in amongst the trees.
Although it seems like we’ll be getting a clearcut story with the use of a large picture book on the stage to set the scenes, it is anything but. We move from Gretel to a latex-wearing robot who calls everyone ‘John’ and provocatively asks if someone in the audience would like a drink and squirts them with water from her boobs. She tells the audience in a monotonous droll “I am the perfect woman – beautiful, successful, intelligent”; then malfunctions whilst singing ‘The Girl From Ipanema’. We’re also introduced to two ugly sisters who tell limericks and play the saw as an instrument, two puppet witches (one with saggy tits and the other with perky ones) and a magician who pours milk into smaller and smaller cups. There’s a witch who has a basket of goodies including a vagina candle and a can of spray to kill off ‘Toryitus’ which was apparently rampant in the Norwich Arts Centre. The political commentary was on point and relevant, and there was a real sense of camaraderie built when the audience sang along to an ‘Arsehole Rodeo’ song about misogyny growing, a government who couldn’t give a monkeys, Brexit and COVID.
It's without a doubt a risqué show that embraces the totally ridiculous. There are many moments that are out-and-out smutty like the gnarly goblin with a small winky and perhaps most shockingly of all were the knickerless moments. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen nudity on the stage and it was both funny and striking to see an actual vag before me. It almost didn’t feel right to laugh because it was such a powerful feminist message. The acting was incredible, the magic tricks were splendorous, and the message to embrace your inner witch was inspiring.
Overall, ‘Witch Hunt’ is an enchanting watch that left me feeling spellbound by its uncompromising frankness. With all the innuendos and saucy gags, it can feel like it’s moving around all over the place but in a way, that’s also the magic of it.
