|
See also: |
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
October 18, 1998 |
|
1692 |
||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Copyright © 1998, Janet I. Egan |
|
If you've visited Massachusetts, you've seen the billboards advertising Salem as "witch city" with "history in every step" and seen plenty of witch-on-broomstick kitsch. You won't see any billboards or witch kitsch in Andover. However, Andover succumbed to the hysteria in a big way. In all 48 persons were cried out against in the Andover witch hunt that summer. The total population of Andover at that time was only 600! (BTW, Andover and North Andover were all one town then.) So it wasn't surprising that Julie's play was sold out way ahead of time. I was glad I'd bought tickets for myself and Nancy long ago. This play was definitely worth giving up a warm, sunny October Sunday afternoon for. Both of us were genuinely moved by it. The actors were excellent, especially the 8 year old girl who played 7 1/2 year old Sarah Carrier who confessed and testified against her mother. It was chilling to think of the judge believing bizarre testimony from a little kid - but it happens all the time even now! Actually, that was the thing that got to me: the kind of hysteria that happened in 1692 in Essex County still happens all over the world. Julie's script and the actors' performances really brought home the way good people can get swept up in terrible crimes. Tom did a good job as the magistrate (the actual court in 1692 had three judges, so his character was a composite) interrogating the accused and pressing them to confess. Ned came close to overacting in his role as William Barker, whose confession was the most interesting and outlandish, but in the end he pulled it off. Barker is the one who claimed there were 307 witches in Essex County and they were going to take over the whole county. The North Andover Citizen ran a story about the play in last week's paper , which featured a picture of Julie posing with William Barker's gravestone. (Barker got off and lived to be 73.) Several of the performers had historical connections to the play: the guy who played Capt. John Osgood is a descendant of John Osgood, one of the actresses is descended from William Barker's brother; the guy who played Rev. Barnard is descended from a hanged "witch" from Topsfield; Rev. Blanchard held the same pulpit as his character, Rev. Dane.
|
||||||||
