The Manningtree Witches is a stage adaptation meant for the screen

Above a bare wooden stage, backed by a set of wide, wooden stairs, rows of golden corn grow … downwards! In a programme note, the designer Sara Perks explains about coming across the phrase “the world turned upside down” while researching the background of this story, set in the 1640s during the English civil war. Her set visually symbolises the sense of upheaval underpinning the action in Ava Pickett’s new play, adapted from AK Blakemore’s 2021 novel inspired by historical events.

For the villagers of Manningtree in Essex, the war does not so much overturn social norms as amplify and exaggerate pre-existing structural injustices (still recognisable in today’s world); in particular, the scapegoating of the powerless. The ills of the times (crop failures, miscarriages, fatal illnesses, deaths of animals) are attributed to the devil-inspired actions of teenager Rebecca West (clever but confused Lucy Mangan), her mother (proudly independent Gina Isaac) and her similarly poverty-stricken and widowed friends by the outsider who will become known as the witchfinder general (sanctimonious Sam Mitchell). His reign of terror is achieved through forced confessions and the snitchings of the better-off wives and mothers.

Pickett’s script has a punchy direct-to-audience delivery style, but its segmented construction, unfolding episodically rather than dramatically, seems crafted more for the screen than the stage; it feels patchy and overlong.

Director Natasha Rickman’s production works to bring out the strengths in the writing: its symbolism in Lucía Sánchez Roldán’s sharp-beamed lighting, contrasting clarity and obscurity, hazed by boundary-blurring smoke. Its atmosphere is in the mood-influencing music by Nicola T Chang, combined with Elena Peña’s space-expanding sound design. And last, but certainly not least, in its characterisations, crafted with impressive emotional integrity by each of the 11-strong cast (besides those already named, special mention to Fiona Branson’s disintegrating Bess Clarke and to Gabriel Agha as the “bewitched” child Thomas), supported by an exceptional community chorus of 17 (movement directed by Frantic Assembly theatre company’s Scott Graham).

The Manningtree Witches is at Mercury theatre, Colchester, until 14 March

Photograph by Pamela Raith