Again within the seventeenth century, in a sublime home run by Woman Elizabeth (Lydia Leonard) and a handful of feminine servants, steady woman Agnes (Alison Oliver) is a witch with lofty social ambitions. In a Faustian pact with Elizabeth (who, it's steered, has herself offered her soul to the Satan), she helps her mistress safe the legacy of her grand home.
A male inheritor is required so Elizabeth’s brother Edward (Leo Invoice) is witchily married to the virginal however keen Catherine (Ioanna Kimbook).
Alas, though Unsteady Eddie is pleased to boff servant ladies, he's reluctant to carry out conjugal duties along with his spouse. In the meantime, England is getting ready to civil warfare.
There isn't any scarcity of concepts in Raczka’s play however none of them are developed.
The boundaries of feminine empowerment in a patriarchy, the fallacy of permanence, and social-class divisions are all themes floating like driftwood that by no means comes collectively to type a stage-worthy vessel, regardless of Rupert Goold’s usually clean-limbed path.
And the way is it attainable to fireside three pictures from a double-barrelled shotgun with out reloading? Witchcraft, in all probability.
- Ladies, Beware the Satan, Almeida Theatre, London, till March 25. Tickets: 020 7359 4404