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Vinegar Tom: 1976 Hull Production

Vinegar Tom was Caryl Churchill's play about witch trials in England. It had its first production in October 1976 in Hull, England, directed by Pam Brighton. The play received mixed reviews, with one describing it as a complex investigation of how women's bodies and desires were policed. It later had its first production in London in December 1976 at the ICA, again directed by Pam Brighton and Helen Glavin providing music. While the story was powerful, one review criticized that the play lacked dramatic power and overstated its message about finding something to burn, such as a witch or woman.

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130 views2 pages

Vinegar Tom: 1976 Hull Production

Vinegar Tom was Caryl Churchill's play about witch trials in England. It had its first production in October 1976 in Hull, England, directed by Pam Brighton. The play received mixed reviews, with one describing it as a complex investigation of how women's bodies and desires were policed. It later had its first production in London in December 1976 at the ICA, again directed by Pam Brighton and Helen Glavin providing music. While the story was powerful, one review criticized that the play lacked dramatic power and overstated its message about finding something to burn, such as a witch or woman.

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Vinegar Tom: Social conventions

The audience
The first production of Vinegar Tom was held on October 12 th 1976 after many
months of rehearsals at the Humberside Theatre in Hull and directed by Pam
Brighton. Although written By Caryl Churchill it was produced by the Monstrous
Regiment (a theatre company) The play received a mixture of reviews and was
described as "a complex and historically expansive investigation of the policing of
women's bodies and desires" by one.

The original cast:

Joan: Mary McCusker

Susan: Sue Todd

Alice: Gillian Hanna

Goody: Helen Glavin

Betty: Josefina Cupido

Margery: Linda Broughton

Ellen "cunning woman": Chris Bowler

Jack: Ian Blower

Man, Doctor, Bellringer, Packer: Roger Allam

Kramer and Sprenger: Chris Bowler, Mary McCusker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar_Tom

https://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=dgbZAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=first+production+of+vinegar+tom+hull
&source=bl&ots=5wbuffVqDy&sig=FLby2VmNtwYsz3ZndU5CscAD6HQ&hl=en&sa=
X&ved=0ahUKEwiHxbzE6M7QAhUiIMAKHV3nBzcQ6AEIOjAF#v=onepage&q=first
%20production%20of%20vinegar%20tom%20hull&f=false

As the play became more known it then led to its first production in London at the
ICA December 14th of the same year. Pam Brighton again directed along with Helen
Glavin who provided the music. The cast remained the same. It was then published
in the book Plays by Women: Volume one in 1978.
The play falters in its lack of faith in dramatic analogy, let alone the power of the
story as it stands. The musicadmittedly entertaining in itself, spells out the fact that
we all need to find something to burn: if not a witch, then perhaps a woman, a black
or a Jew. Such sentiment, although arguably admirable, is hardly achieved in the
play itself. Or rather, it is potentially achieved and then tossed away in righteous
overstatement.

A review by Michael Coveney, Financial Times, 15th Dec.1976

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