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It’s been 317 years. The Salem Witch Trials are officially funny. In a musical comedy that opens Friday, an all-female cast gives everyone’s favorite Puritanical travesty the Annoyance treatment. And in time for Halloween, this particular historical take involves apple bobbing and a tap-dancing skeleton.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials,” says Elise Dubois, who plays Abigail Williams and conceived the idea for the show last fall. “I wanted to do a dark comedy with all ladies, so this seemed like a great starting point.”
With that concept on the table, director Mark Vannier (who directed The Annoyance’s snowman/zombie send-up Frostbite last winter) led the cast of five actresses through an improv-to-sketch rehearsal process to create the show. “I kind of actively avoided researching,” says Vannier, “and I stayed away from The Crucible, because I actually didn’t want to be thinking of that when we were creating. I was worried more about the characters and the relationships.”
The resulting show presents a wacked-out vision of how the witch trials actually began, hinging on the notion that powerful men felt threatened by smart girls. “They never really knew what spurred [the witch trials],” explains Dubois. “There are multiple theories, but they still don’t know why. So I felt [the origin] was open enough to make fun of, which is what we’re doing.”
Lauren Van Kurin and Kayce Alltop, who recently co-wrote and appeared with Dubois in the girl-band parody Was: The Story of What Was, play patriarchs Reverend Parris and Dr. Grimes, respectively. Van Kurin also plays the ill-fated Gonnie Grimes, whose girlie witchcraft games in the woods first raise suspicion. Ashley Thornton plays the Reverend’s snooping daughter Betsy, and Allison Black plays Tituba (yes, the slave) with an accent Black affectionately describes as a “horrible Island/Irish mix.”
Dan Wessels, of Comedy Sportz and Baby Wants Candy, wrote the original score, which includes genre nods like a Pippin-esque opening number and Disney-princess-style solo. We’re especially looking forward to a James Brown-inspired ditty called “Do the Pee Cake.” It describes an actual witch trial practice too disgusting to make it into Arthur Miller’s play. Luckily we have The Annoyance to tackle such topics.
Runs October 2 – October 30; Fridays at 8 pm / $15.
