ABIGAIL Abigail Williams After The Salem Witch Trials

Fury Theatre presents ABIGAIL, by Stephen Gillard and Laura Turner, a new play inspired by the Salem Witch Trials.

Abigail brings to the stage the untold story of the true-life character Abigail Williams. The accuser, running from the Salem Witch Trials; a young woman, dismissed by history, lost in a world she cannot comprehend.

Abigail and Barbadian slave Tituba shared a tortured history in Salem at the height of the Witch Trials. Now we find Abigail as a young woman on the run from the law, trying to find herself in a new world. But the ghosts of the past - the toxic masculinity that has always surrounded her, the vilification a passionate woman experiences in the world, and her own mistreatment of Tituba - force Abigail to ask difficult questions of herself, of her actions and choices, and what it means to be "empowered" in the world then - and the world now.

This piece puts Abigail herself, and not the events of the Salem Witch Trials, at the heart of the drama, exploring the emotional and psychological effects an event such as Salem may have had on a young, vulnerable woman.

The play is set in Massachusetts in 1692, but this isn't the staid, inaccessible story of the history books. This is a world that is alive with music, passion, danger and deceit. Abigail will fall into the traps of this world, but she will also revel in its decadence, debauchery and excess.

Set in 1696, ABIGAIL uses the past to expose how our system still fails to protect vulnerable women today. Exploring exploitation and coercive control, examining white privilege (as well as gender/class) and highlighting the female bisexual experience.

The Space Theatre, Isle of Dogs, London

3rd May - 7th May 2022 (Tuesday - Saturday evenings 8pm, Saturday matinee 2.30pm) Livestream performance + after show Q&A - Thursday 5th May 2022

On demand available for 2 weeks after the performance

Learn more at www.furytheatre.co.uk.

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