"Fertile Soil" by Grace Deavall. 

Rebel Witch Productions.

Bonington Theatre, Arnold.

"Fertile Soil" is a 60 minute play telling the story of two 17th century women- accused of witchcraft- awaiting their demise on the gallows. The play has been a long time in the brewing with its' roots going back to the days of lockdown. Grace Deavall's script is bewitching with some very down to earth language, and I love the two styles of language, one for the elder woman, Alice, and the more modern language, and way of speaking of Maggie, the younger woman. It's also very natural and conversational.

The music as you enter the dark auditorium is enough to put you on edge, and you see Alice sat in a large circular section marked out on the floor. Maggie enters, or should I say pushed into the circular area and it's then that we see that these two women obviously know each other, and are obviously not friends. As the time goes by we discover that two young boys were drowned, but was it an accident or were they murdered? By the end of the play, it's still not clear what did happen and who was involved, but the one person left in the prison cell left us with a confident smile on their face! Is this because the guilty party got their comeuppance, or was there manipulation at play somewhere?

Grace Deavall plays Maggie, one of the witches while Sue Whyte plays the other witch, Alice Thornback. Two opposites in many ways and both ladies gave as good as they got with the verbal tennis, but I must say I loved the coarseness of Alice, as well her methods of descriptive banter. While Maggie paced around like a caged tiger, Alice gave a slower pace of movement, almost as if monitoring her new cellmate. And we get to learn the meaning of the play's title right before the close of the play.

Directed and Produced by Rebecca Head, this play is a little diamond of a piece. You were drawn into the two way banter very easily and the more you watched and listened, the more you wanted to know what had led up to the incarceration of these two women. It also has that lovely musty feel of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". I also see from the programme that this is Rebecca's directorial debut in the world of theatre.

The atmospheric music heard in the play has been composed by Jack Fleming, who has also created the sound design for "Fertile Soil". Some great sound effects, which in a couple of places did actually make me jump - only a little - but that was because of my visual engrossment in the story and the acting, and when an aural distraction to the focused sense is introduced, it completely jars the other senses. In my opinion a brilliant use of sound and sound effects. 

An interesting lighting effect which gave the impression of some kind of window up above, and apart from that the set was surrounded with darkness apart from the circled area, and even that became dimmer in parts of the play. The combination of these things gave a really depressing, dank, and small enclosure for these two women; well I suppose it is a 17th Century prison. Great atmosphere created by the collaboration of the sound and light teams.

The set design is an interesting one as there doesn't seem to be that much on stage at first glance, but on taking a closer look, especially at the components of the circle, plus a very rustic stool, a couple of candlesticks and a typical looking broom, which is used in the fight section

This is the play's first outing in a theatre, but I do know that there are hopes to take the play out to tour in "site specific locations", but first the company need to raise the funds to be able to do this, which as anyone who knows anything about theatre and putting on a production, is not cheap. I really hope that "Fertile Soil" gets the chance to reap rewards for everyone involved and the money is raised to allow this captivating piece of theatre to be seen by an even wider audience. It's Deavallishly good!

"Fertile Soil" was at the Bonington Theatre, Arnold for one night only on Friday 30 October.