This June, the Pitlochry Pageant Theatre manufacturing of The Maggie Wall, Martin McCormick’s acclaimed play, is ready to make a welcome return to the Studio in Pitlochry from 9 to twenty-eight June.
The play was impressed by a mysterious monument inbuilt Dunning in Perthshire, commemorating the dying of a girl who was supposedly tried and executed within the 17th century for witchcraft.
Co–produced with Aberdeen Arts Centre, The Maggie Wall explores the vulnerability of girls and the injustices suffered by them in a patriarchal and closed group, resonating with modern experiences, in addition to reminding us of a chapter of Scottish and British historical past through which many individuals, predominantly girls, had been accused, tried and killed as suspected witches.
‘The Maggie Wall’ is the location of a mysterious marker to a girl tried and executed within the seventeenth century for witchcraft. It’s a group of stones standing about 20 ft excessive, bearing the phrases in white lettering, “Maggie Wall burnt right here 1657 as a witch”.
The thriller, nonetheless, is that no report of a girl known as Maggie Wall has ever been found. There isn’t a proof of her crimes, and nothing to point what she did to warrant the label of ‘witch’. Historians now consider that Maggie Wall’s monument is, in actual fact, a memorial to honour the reminiscence of all the ladies executed, utilizing Maggie as a legendary determine to signify those that had been accused of witchcraft and misplaced their lives because of this.
The Maggie Wall is carried out by acclaimed Scottish actress Blythe Jandoo whose theatre credit embody Gypsy and Sunshine on Leith (Pitlochry Pageant Theatre), Peter Pan (Clyde Auditorium Glasgow), and who featured within the Walt Disney Image’s Aladdin and Magnificence and the Beast. Blythe is at the moment showing within the Pitlochry Pageant Theatre’s 2023 manufacturing of Gypsy and can shortly be seen on the Theatre in The Secret Backyard.
Perthshire based mostly Martin McCormick is a author, actor and director. He received the Critics’ Awards Theatre in Scotland (CATS) award for Finest New Play in 2014 for his play Squash. His theatre credit embody 22 Mays (Pitlochry Pageant Theatre), South Bend (Grid Iron), Ma, Pa and the Little Mouths (Nationwide Theatre of Scotland/Tron Theatre), The Day The Pope Emptied Croy (Traverse Theatre) and most not too long ago Oh When the Saints (Perth Theatre).
Martin McCormick stated in regards to the return of The Maggie Wall:
“I’m thrilled that Pitlochry Pageant Theatre’s manufacturing of The Maggie Wall, together with Amy’s path and Blythe’s efficiency, are reaching a wider viewers in 2023. Maggie’s story is a fictionalised account of a person tried and executed as a witch in seventeenth century rural Scotland. Nonetheless, the themes of my narrative; a younger lady being persecuted, subjugated, and imprisoned by a patriarchy, are tragically legitimate and actual.”
Director of Aberdeen Arts Centre Amy Liptrott added:
“The Maggie Wall is a visceral, intimate, and thought-provoking play. I really feel very fortunate to be directing Blythe Jandoo once more for a co-production of Martin’s sensible play with Pitlochry Pageant Theatre, and in October, the manufacturing will likely be a part of a really particular celebration at Aberdeen Arts Centre. The persecution Maggie suffers, sadly, isn’t a factor of fiction and, in sharing her story, we keep in mind the injustice of the Witch Trials and the injustice constantly suffered by persecuted individuals ever since.”
The Maggie Wall will likely be within the Studio at Pitlochry Pageant Theatre from 9 to twenty-eight June.
Tickets for The Maggie Wall can be found from the Pitlochry Pageant Theatre Field Workplace on 01796 484626 or on-line at www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
