Martin McCormick’s The Maggie Wall to return to Pitlochry Festival Theatre this summer

Martin McCormick’s new play The Maggie Wall will return to Pitlochry Festival Theatre in June.

The piece, directed by Amy Liptrott and performed by Blythe Jandoo, will run from 9 – 28 June in the venue’s Studio space.

Originally premiering last year, the monologue is inspired by a mysterious monument built in Dunning in Perthshire to commemorate the death of a woman who was tried and executed in the 17th century for witchcraft.

The Maggie Wall explores the vulnerability of women and the injustices suffered by them in a patriarchal and closed community, resonating with contemporary experiences, as well as reminding us of a chapter of Scottish and British history in which many people, predominantly women, were accused, tried and killed as suspected witches.

The Maggie Wall is the site of a mysterious marker to a woman tried and executed in the 17th century for witchcraft. It’s a collection of stones standing about 20 feet high, bearing the words in white lettering, “Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch”.

The mystery, however, is that no record of a woman called Maggie Wall has ever been discovered. There is no evidence of her crimes, and nothing to indicate what she did to warrant the label of ‘witch’. Historians now believe that Maggie Wall’s monument is, in fact, a memorial to honour the memory of all the women executed, using Maggie as a mythical figure to represent those who were accused of witchcraft and lost their lives as a result

Martin McCormick said about the return of The Maggie Wall: “I’m thrilled that Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s production of The Maggie Wall, along with Amy’s direction and Blythe’s performance, are reaching a wider audience in 2023. Maggie’s story is a fictionalised account of an individual tried and executed as a witch in 17th century rural Scotland. However, the themes of my narrative; a young woman being persecuted, subjugated, and imprisoned by a patriarchy, are tragically valid and real.”

Director of Aberdeen Arts Centre Amy Liptrott added: “The Maggie Wall is a visceral, intimate, and thought-provoking play. I feel very lucky to be directing Blythe Jandoo again for a co-production of Martin’s brilliant play with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, and in October, the production will be part of a very special celebration at Aberdeen Arts Centre. The persecution Maggie suffers, sadly, isn’t a thing of fiction and, in sharing her story, we remember the injustice of the Witch Trials and the injustice consistently suffered by persecuted people ever since.”

For more information and tickets, visit www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com