Edinburgh Fringe 2026
If We Really Were Witches
Scene 24 Productions
Venue: Paradise in the Vault
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
In the 1600s, witchcraft is on the rise, or at least the claim that it exists is. People are accused of witchcraft at the merest mention of them saying something that the patriarchy or Orthodox Christian view does not accept. Ghosts then arrive to sort things out, which is ironic given that they are there to prove that witchcraft doesn’t exist, yet they use their witchcraft to resolve the whole thing. Over a series of interactions with the living, the ghosts manage to bring a form of resolution.
Review
Scene 24 Productions is a young American company filled with fervour and vitality and a desire to change their world, if not everybody else’s. Here they have taken on a topic which is ripe in Scotland given that we had over 3,000 witches in the last few years pardoned by the Scottish Parliament. It also has more than a nod to the Salem Witch Trials and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Written during the McCarthyite Trials, any resemblance this may have to the current American administration is missing from this comic turn, but you can’t but fail to feel there is a correlation.
This stays, however, vainly in the comic and mines as much as it can of the absurdity of witchcraft trials and the pricking of the witches by tests which were clearly designed to put them to death. With four actors trebling, you can get no more than a comic book sense of the patriarchy and the Guild of Prickers as well as the women who are being accused and finally the ghosts. Clearly delineated through costume throughout as well as attitude and physicality.
This is a decent piece of theatre directed for Paradise in the Vault.
It manages to farcically build upon the source material, which is nonsensical in itself. However, there are references in there which work better than others. The over-the-top acting style at times can obscure some decent comic timing, which if it was dialled down a little things would be funnier.
All four actors work well collectively and individually. Their over the top acting tells a tale but keeping that going for as long as they do can grate.
What does work continually is the well-worn central concern of a patriarchal pastor attempting to seduce a local wench. This does hold the thing together.
It has been directed with a degree of skill however, one of the problems in Paradise in the Vault is to decide whether or not you’re going to present at the front, given the sight lines of the corner seats. At times I felt that there could have been more use of the depth of the stage, particularly where people are emoting and expressing behind the backs of others.
Technically there was not much to it, lighting was up and down and costume was functional, but then again that was all that was needed.
If We Really Were Witches was a decent laugh in the company of an enthusiastic group of supporting audience which suggests that Scene 24 Productions have caught an idea that makes them funny. Given their mission statement is to look after women folk and give them a real opportunity on a stage that’s not just admirable, the fruits of the labour are in front of us. Perhaps, though, pulling more seriousness in the comedy could be closer to the ideals of their company allowing them to ironically prick the barriers in society rather than simply try to make a funny piece of theatre, which this was.
