Orlando Fringe 2025
Witch With Her Skirt On Fire
Phoenix Tear
Genre: Feminist Theatre, Historical, One Person Show, Storytelling
Venue: Blue
Festival: Orlando Fringe
Low Down
An hour of witch storytelling by Megan Markham. Through creative, simple storytelling techniques, Megan creates a hypnotizing hour of theatre that seeks to answer why Witches are seen as wicked.
Review
There are few storytellers I can think of who are truly hypnotizing to watch. Through minimalism, their words and simplicity, a great storyteller can take us to dimensions and times unheard of. You believe every word coming out of their mouth, no matter how fictional or fantastical it is. Megan Markham is one of those storytellers. Witty, insightful, engaging, and mysterious, Markham is everything you could want out of a storytelling witch.
Witch With Her Skirt On Fire is Markham retelling her attempt to explain to her religious grandmother why the world sees witches as evil. Through four stories, she cradles the audience like a fragile book and whispers in our ears about spirits, witches, and libraries of other dimensions. My notes taken for this review in my journal feel like fragments of thoughts. I found myself simply jotting down the insightful thoughts Markham had to say about knowledge and the universe.
Not wanting to spoil the punch, her storytelling collides masterfully, taking seemingly unrelated stories and tying them together. My personal favorite was the first about the Library in the Center of the Universe. Her final punch about how books, namely the Bible, “think” lands.
Like most storytelling shows, not all the stories were as strong as others. I struggle to remember the details of the latter two stories than the first ones. Perhaps this is just on me being mentally exhausted after more or less surviving a long fringe? I moreso attribute it to pacing and variety. I felt the show needed more theatrical magic at times. Her simple usage of a glowing book and a tablecloth turned scarf broke up the pace and wow’d the audience. They did all go “wow.” The subtle details of sound, light, and props transform the show to true witchcraft and make key details more memorable. Only when the show falls back to the traditional rhythm of storytelling, it became harder to follow.
From Markham’s sell-out performances, it is clear she has a hit on her hand. You will not find better feminist storytelling. Witch With Her Skirt On Fire lights up your mind and inspires knowledge. I know I would pay good money to have Markham perform in a non-traditional immersive space to smaller audiences (but one idea for the show to stretch its legs outside the fringe scene). The simplicity of the fringe and venue cannot withstand the complexity and depth to Markham’s story and performance ability. Witch With Her Skirt On Fire is a show deeply rooted in fireside intimacy. Markham stands proud beside her fellow witches.
