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History records the facts from its own perspective. Each writer has their own agenda. Points of view that pepper the narrative of the time and bend the bare bones of what has gone before into the shapes they require. In terms of the witchcraft trials, there is little more than the ashes of those bones recorded in dry academic textbooks and difficult-to-decipher public records. Facts, that allow the reader to keep the horrors of the Scottish witch persecution at arm's length.
For this performance. We want to engage your 'six' senses, so you can taste the salt air of the sea on your tongue. Touch the cold gravestones of loved ones in the abandoned kirkyard. Hear the cries of the condemned as they are searched for the Devil's mark. See the sky filled with black smoke and ash at Culross. Feel the tangible fear of witchcraft accusations, that infected the nation in 17th Century Scotland. Beyond that, to know intimately the world of a mother and daughter accused of witchcraft.
To do that, we have put flesh to flesh and bone to bone. Walked a crooked mile, in the hobbled footsteps of the accused. Became grey ghosts in the places they once lived. Danced widdershins in the abandoned West Kirk. Sang lullabies to their lost spirits. Searched for the allusive blue light in ancient lore. All in an attempt to resurrect the accused witches in our performance and upcoming book.
As in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, there is a process to creation. Pieces of the past, that were found down rabbit holes and in hidden places, are stitched together with strong twine. The spirits of the dead live inside your skin. They eat from your table. In exchange, they allow you to see the world they inhabited through their eyes. To intimately explore every inch of their being. An invitation to swim in the darkness that infects every human soul. To taste their taboos and tortures. Before breath brings it alive in words, commas, and full stops. Giving birth to a story in ink and image. The audience and reader are the final part and most important part of that creative process. You make them immortal in your imagination. For that I thank you!