“Strange but spellbinding... I’ve never seen anything quite like The Witch of Edmonton... darkly seductive.” —Times

“Darkly comic” —Telegraph

In the village of Edmonton, Elizabeth Sawyer is shunned by her neighbors. A poor and lonely old woman, she is harassed and accused of being a witch. In her abject misery, she wishes that she really were bewitched and so able to have her revenge. Unluckily for Elizabeth and the villagers of Edmonton, someone with the power to grant that wish is listening.

First performed in 1621, The Witch of Edmonton was based by its authors Thomas Dekker, John Ford and William Rowley on a real-life case of a woman accused of witchcraft. The play was revived by the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of its 2014 Roaring Girls season, in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, directed by RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran and with Eileen Atkins as Elizabeth Sawyer.

This Prompt Book edition of the play features the text edited for the RSC production, and introductions by key members of its creative team, including Doran.

Thomas Dekker, John Ford and William Rowley were Jacobean dramatists writing between 1600 and 1635. They were regular collaborators, on plays such as The Changeling (Rowley and Middleton), Westward Ho (Dekker and Webster). John Ford enjoyed the greatest individual success with his masterpiece ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore.