NPX Weekly Round-Up: witch play by Erica Phoebus

A celebration of sapphic love and bodily autonomy, plus three other plays that excited me this week.

I know, this play was on my “three other plays” list just last week. The title and summary excited me so much that I knew I had to read it ASAP!

If you don’t know me, I’m really into witch stuff. I read tarot and would probably live inside a metaphysical shop if I could. I visited Salem once for six hours like five years ago and I’ve been trying to go back ever since. It’s my thing. I’m also bisexual, so I’m intrigued by any mention of queer women in a story. So when I ran across witch play by Erica Phoebus, I thought to myself, “Well, I guess I have to read this now.”

Here’s the summary of the play from NPX:

It's 1563...ish, and Anny Chapman wants to get pregnant. No wait, sorry, Anny Chapman MUST get pregnant, or else she could be tried as a witch. As secret fertility treatments from the local alewife, Besse, births an unexpected love between them, the world outside threatens to knock down their door. Meanwhile, the Virgin Mary has arrived on the scene, and she wants her autonomy back… A dark comedy, a love story, a ritual, a spell; witch play searches for all the places our pleasure may go, after we’ve chosen to unleash it.

It’s so wonderfully chaotic sounding, is it not?

(Content warnings for discussions of infertility and sex as well as allusions to religious trauma.)

The play opens with a nonverbal scene drawing an intrinsic and unspoken connection between Anny and Besse, our two main characters. Besse is an “alewife”, basically someone that brews ale or beer for the community and opens her home up as a sort of bar. Anny and her husband are new in town, escaping what we come to learn are accusations of witchcraft on Anny’s part. Anny and her husband John have been married for three years, but have not yet had children. For some reason this lead their previous community to assume that Anny was doing something specifically to not have children, which they viewed as ungodly, which of course naturally lead to them concluding that she was a witch. Oy vey, am I right? The sixteenth century was wild.

Anny comes to Besse later after hearing that the alewife may be able to help her with her infertility problem. Naturally, Anny doesn’t want her and John’s previous issue following them to this new town. Besse seems reluctant at first, but agrees with some cajoling. This leads to some strange and very gross “treatments” that Anny undergoes such as drinking horse pee (EW EW EW), but through these…uh, “interesting” appointments, Anny and Besse grow to become friends. The two do their best to avoid the townspeople’s prying eyes in this matter as well, not wanting Besse to be accused of witchcraft either.

While all of this is happening, we learn that the town is newly Protestant and that the pastor, Father Wright, is holding lots of strange and “mandatory” gatherings. Besse is not usually at these gatherings, claiming that she needs to be working. It is when a patron is describing the latest event to Besse that another patron, Patrik, stumbles in missing a finger. He claims a strange demonic creature turned him into a dog and bit his finger off. Besse and the other patrons are confused, and dismiss his ramblings as those of a drunk. While attempting to clean the wound, Patrik bites Besse hard on the arm, enough to draw blood. John, who comes in looking for a drink, sees this and slaps Patrick upside the head for it. All is resolved, Besse bandages up Patrik, and everyone leaves. Once Besse is alone, it’s made immediately clear that something is not right with this wound of hers, as it bleeds profusely. Demonic eyes appear in her window, and the scene ends.

The story becomes less “realistic” as the play continues from this point. The women grow closer, and John is threatened by the pastor, Father Wright, that he knows of Anny’s past. Anny concludes somewhere along the way that the reason she is not getting pregnant is that she is not orgasming and releasing her own “seed”. Besse knows this isn’t a thing but helps anyways. This is where the relationship goes a little beyond friendship, not solely because sex is discussed more intimately, but because the two must become vulnerable with each other to attempt to solve the problem. Anny and John try to be intimate a few more times, though Besse is always in the back of Anny’s mind. It is made clear that while Anny and Besse are not witches, something strange is indeed happening in this place.

After a particularly intimate meeting with Anny, the Virgin Mary appears to Besse as a pregnant teen. Yeah, you read that right— the Virgin frickin’ Mary. And she becomes a fixture throughout the rest of the play, appearing to both Besse and Anny in their times to need to show them what it is they really need and want: to have control over their lives and bodies, to love those things, and to love each other.

I loved the use of the Virgin Mary as a symbol of rebirth, autonomy, and acceptance. Especially if you’re a sapphic woman with religious trauma, this hits different. To see a figure that is so lauded in Christianity, but specifically in Catholicism, ask these women what they want and to question the men’s idea of god is so powerful. Mary is often reduced to “mother of god”, and not examined as a person or character within herself outside of her connection to men. It’s healing in a way for me, and for I think a lot of ex-Catholic queers, to see her portrayed like this.

The play builds to some very evocative and crazy events that I won’t spoil here, because you should read the play for yourself. But rest assured, they deliver.

This play is a great example of how to take a time, place, and/or situation and use it less as a prescriptive element and more of a…vibe. This play sort of takes place in 1563, as stated in the summary, but that doesn’t dictate the way the characters talk or necessarily how they think. Strange, non-realistic things are allowed to happen, and because of that the characters, themes, and messages of the play are clearer. It’s like that TV show The Great which is based of the play of the same name, or even Bridgerton— the historical background is essential to the atmosphere, and perhaps even some of the situations, but it doesn’t hold the characters or the plot back in any way. This mix of historical elements and modernity serves to illuminate the playwright’s message of autonomy and self love, which would be much harder to do if the story and characters were completely accurate to the time period.

I very much enjoyed reading this play, and I hope you give it a shot!

Here’s my official recommendation from NPX:

A battle cry for sapphic people who have felt caged by religion, patriarchy, and sometimes, even themselves. I adored the non linear application of time and space, and as someone who was raised Catholic but is no longer, I really loved how the character of the Virgin Mary was utilized. She became something whole unto herself instead of being defined by her son, husband, or other men around her. I would absolutely love to see this staged.

Have you read this play? Want to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Here are three other plays that made it to my NPX library this week:

• Winchester Geese by Maggie Smith

• Hearts of Brothers’ Temper by Megan Fraedrich

• Now We Are A Hundred by Alaina Tennant

Want me to read any of these plays? Want me to read yours? Message me on here on SubStack and I’ll add it to my list!

Happy reading!

~Brynn