We all know the expression “he sold his soul to the devil.” That phrase goes back to the story of Faust and also to a Jacobean drama from 1621 entitled The Witch of Edmonton by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford. That play serves as the inspiration for Witch, a play by Jen Silverman that has its official opening this week at the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theatre at the Geffen Playhouse. Witch will run through September 29th.
In the play a woman, Elizabeth (Maura Tierney), whom everyone in the village already believes is a witch, encounters a seductive man, Scratch (Evan Jonigkeit), who makes a generous offer to help her. But for a price.
According to reviews from the play’s world premiere production in 2018 in Chicago, the setting is very much of-the-period, but the language is very contemporary. Marti Lyons, who directed that production, also directs here.
The cast also includes Brian George, Ruy Iskandar, Vella Lovell and Will Von Vogt.
Will Von Vogt replaces the previously announced Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory). He memorably played the lead in Significant Other at the Geffen Playhouse in the spring of 2018.
Silverman was a writer and story editor on the reboot of Tales in the City that appears on Netflix. Amongst her plays are The Moors, The Roommate, Still and Wink.
For tickets go here.
Photo of Maura Tierney and Evan Jonigkeit in The Witch by Jeff Lorch/Courtesy of the Geffen Playhouse.
