Witch

by Jen Silverman

A charming devil arrives in the quiet village of Edmonton to bargain for the souls of its residents in exchange for their darkest wishes. Elizabeth should be his easiest target, having been labeled a "witch" and cast out by the town, but her soul is not so readily bought. As the devil returns to convince her - and then returns again - unexpected passions flare, alliances are formed, and the village is forever changed. An inventive retelling of a Jacobean drama, this sharp, subversive fable debates how much our souls are worth when hope is hard to come by.

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Drama, Theatre, Horror, Contemporary, Fantasy

96 pages, Paperback

Published November 9, 2022

About the author

Jen Silverman is a New York-based writer. Born in the U.S., she was raised across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her theatre work includes The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre premiere, off-Broadway with The Playwrights Realm, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist); The Roommate (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Humana world premiere, multiple regional productions including South Coast Rep, SF Playhouse and Williamstown Theatre Festival, upcoming at Steppenwolf); Phoebe In Winter (Off-off Broadway with Clubbed Thumb); Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (Woolly Mammoth premiere); and All the Roads Home, a play with songs (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park premiere).

Jen is a member of New Dramatists, a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, an affiliated artist with SPACE on Ryder Farm, and has developed work with the O’Neill, New York Theatre Workshop, Playpenn, Portland Center Stage, The Ground Floor Residency at Berkeley Rep, and the Royal Court in London among other places. She’s a two-time MacDowell fellow, recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, the Helen Merrill Award, an LMCC Fellowship, and the Yale Drama Series Award. She was the 2016-2017 Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellow at the Lark. Jen has a two-book deal with Random House for a collection of stories (The Island Dwellers, pub date May 1, 2018) and a novel. Education: Brown, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Juilliard.

Reviews

[Iain Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent idea to explore some themes about want, but doesn’t fully develop into its potential and ends rather abruptly.

[Bryce Foti · Rating 5 out of 5]

the devil and homoerotic murder?? lets goooo

[Hellcat Maggie ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, that just cut me open at 4am. I’m in shambles!! How am I to go on after this?

Scratch: I find it so hard to have hope right now. I just find it so hard to have hope.


Elizabeth: I’ve never done anything to them. I barely do anything at all.
Scratch: You exist, and that’s enough. And people like that - whose sheer existence speaks louder than anything they do or don’t do- those people interest me…


Winnifred: And if a soul is what that costs, I don’t think that’s so much, really, because what’s a soul ever done for me?

[Hanna☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ (Free Palestine)]

In some ways, this reminded me of Macbeth, in fact the more I come to think of it, the truer it seems. On one hand we have Macbeth, ready to sell his soul, his humanity, his sense of justice to fulfil his desires and on the other, we have Cuddy and Frank, who literally do sell their souls and, as it happens, they do not fare much better than our Thane of Glamis, Cawdor and he who shalt be King. (sorry I'm just a little obsessed with Macbeth)

Witch covers themes ranging from sexism to jealousy, ambition, greed, murder, revenge, loneliness and sacrifice. It talks about mindsets and the problematic nature of making assumptions of someone. It talks about how feeling neglected by your loved ones can steer you down a path which is very hard to turn back from. It talks about ambtion and how at its core, that isn't a bad thing but when, in its course, you forsake everything and everyone else and abolish your own morals, it becomes a very dangerous thing.

Most importantly it shows the devil almost as if he were a cute puppy.

I don't know how to rate something like this so I won't but it provides ample space for further thought which I shall most definitely engage in.
_____________________

I stumbled upon this so randomly and I was very intrigued (plus the girl who made the video was three seconds away from either breaking down or going full psycho) so here we are!

[Amina Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this bc a booktoker I enjoy made a funny TikTok about it but why was I shattered? In the middle of the day😭😭😭

[Camden Nauroth · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny actually, I loved it. It gave bodies bodies bodies and bottoms!

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ha.
Ha ha.
Hahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!??????!!!! [im crying]

[claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was funny until it wasn’t and now i’m sobbing my eyes out. what the hell is this. this absolute masterpiece of a story and such fantastic writing and character work and now i’m crying my eyes out thinking about the devil. what the hell

[Olivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

koliko je ovo dobro

[Giulia Garbani · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of those plays i read where im like… i need to direct this rn but also need to be in it but also dont want to do both of those things. so i will just ponder on it and one day do One of those things

[gabs ⛤ · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS GENIUS!!!!!!!!
It’s giving good omens with bodies bodies bodies and kinda ifhy by Tyler 😭😭😭

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I have no idea if there's anything better coming down the pike or if this is it, if this is what it is forever - but then also, if this is what it is then shouldn't we learn to live with it? Be happy in small ways be lucky in small ways? A person could love a person and that could be enough couldn't it? But what if there is something amazing ahead and all we have to do is burn down everything we know to get it?... I find it so hard to have hope right now. I just find it so hard to have hope."

This just knocked my socks off

[Devyn Itula · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s funny and good for scene work for all my actors out there

[Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

holy moly

[Zarbakht Arif · Rating 4 out of 5]

96 pages on Desire, hope, morality and feminism

[Ethan Washington · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best contemporary plays I’ve read in the written-like-poetry sub-genre.

[fang · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can’t stop feeling things

[Alexis Grusby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s definitely an interesting concept, but I think parts of it are a bit slow moving and there isn’t as much action as I would’ve liked. Some of the more interesting characters, like the Devil, aren’t as central as they could be- and I fear that the female characters are lacking in personality. I do think the male characters are all very interesting and three dimensional, and the concept with the Devil is fun.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A witty and moving one act about many things both timely for the 21st century and timeless for the deepest questions throughout the history of humanity. Personally, I so thoroughly enjoyed the simple, painful truth of womanhood it also touches on: that we will never be as cherished as the men, and that’s our tragedy.

[Mikaela Georgi · Rating 5 out of 5]

“oh. we had the chance to change all of this. we did have it. we just said No.”

[Flávia Nóbrega]

meu deus eu amo o teatro pqp

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and sweet play. Small cast, a lot of one on one scenes. Modern vernacular set in a Middle Ages (a village, the local nobility, general feudalism vibes). A lot of talk (funny talk!), a little action.

Overall would definitely go see a production of it to see if it plays as smoothly as it reads.

[sophelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

l’enfer est les autres

[Evie Dittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

:,) was really good — super strong story and characters and I liked scratch

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.85 lets be real, it was very fun and touching all at once - the dialogue writing flowed so nicely id love to see a live production of it one day

[hallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5/5)

[Lilo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somebody I know raved about it so I gave it a go and glad I did loved the concept of it alot

[Tania Shreya · Rating 5 out of 5]

*😂 → 😄 → 🙃 → 😕 → 🥺 → 🫩*

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

似乎没感觉到触动但那句 I said no产生了一些奇妙的连接

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting play mixing feminism, class consciouness, morality, etc. etc. I was fortunate enough to see this performed by a very talented group of young people.

The story is distinctly odd...although it's set in a castle and the surrounding village of indeterminate time/place, it definitely has a medieval feel, yet the sentiments and themes are distinctly modern. There's relatively little action, it's mostly character studies. And they are very interesting character studies, but the whole thing doesn't QUITE come together into a coherent whole. There are two main plots-The devil (this is something unclear, though he seems to call himself the Devil and the other characters refer to him as such, it's also clear from his dialogue that he is not THE Devil, but some kind of demon within a corporate type hierarchy). In any case, he has been collecting souls, and the one he most wants is a woman who most of the town (unjustly) believes is already a witch. Yet he finds himself perhaps even falling in love with her...their dialogue crackles and their scenes are probably the best in the play. The other involves the owner of the castle and his obviously gay son, and an ambitious poor kid he has taken in as a boarder who dreams of inheriting the castle himself. These two plots KIND OF come together at the end, but it just feels...not quite resolved or satisfying, dramatically or thematically. And then it just ends.

It's worth reading (or even better seeing if you are lucky enough to run across a performance) but just wasn't totally successful.