New theatre show to shed light on Fife’s dark past
AYOUNG Scottish theatre star is set to expose the dark past of Fife’s witch trials in a new production later this year. The Seven Witches Of Torryburn has been written and directed by Brandon Ferguson, who starred in the show Alba at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 that looked back on the Scottish independence referendum.
It will shed light on the story of seven women from a small Fife coastal village who were accused of witchcraft in 1666 and held in a tollbooth, often subjected to torture by the church.
Ferguson, 24, began writing the script for The Seven Witches Of Torryburn about five years ago, shortly after he moved to Fife from Perth, when he became fascinated with the story of the most famous of the witches, Lilias Adie, whose grave is the only known one in Scotland of an accused witch.
Adie, who lived in Torryburn, died in 1704 in prison before she could be burned for her “confessed” crimes of being a witch and having sex with the devil.
Her skull ended up in the St Andrews University Museum and was photographed before it went missing during the 20th century.
Ferguson told The National: “Her story really resonated with me.
“I had studied The Crucible a bunch of times, so I had a good understanding of the witch trials and what happened in America, but nothing about Scotland. Knowing I was two minutes away from all this history was what got me into looking to see what was there.
“Through Lilias’s story, there are court records and transcripts of stuff she is actually quoted to have said and that opened me up to the story that there were seven women who were kept in the Culross tollbooth in 1666 and they became known as the Seven Witches of Torryburn.”
Ferguson said he wants to get across in his show how these witches were innocent women and while these trials happened several hundred years ago, the treatment of these women is still relevant to today’s society, especially as people still face being accused of witchcraft across the world.
He said many of the 12 cast members have commented on how they would likely be considered witches if they had lived in the 17th century.
“No story that deals with witches is ever without magic. Everything always had to have a slight hint of supernaturalness, and the main point with this is they weren’t witches, they were innocent people,” he said.
“Many of the cast members have said if they lived back then, they would be a witch, because it’s just a person who is slightly different to the status quo.
“It’ll be 365 years in September this year since the seven women were tried. I think it’s really important to be told, especially in the world we’re in now.
“If you look at Ghana, there are witch camps, which you might as well call concentration camps, where there are hundreds of women, disabled, elderly, LGBT+, who are just being kept there.
“If you look at the state of politics and how fear is pretty much running the world, and the misogyny of social media and politics, it’s very relevant.
“People remember the incidents of history; people don’t remember there were real, fully formed individuals who were tortured on a daily basis, who lost their lives for no reason. There’s a woman in our play who is accused because he husband died.
“I think with migrants and trans people in particular, you can relate the way politicians and certain members of the public will talk about those two marginalised groups as very similar to how you would talk about the witches back in the day.”
The show, which will feature seven original songs, will be performed at venues across the country throughout September and October, with the productions at Torryburn Community Centre in Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy already sold out.
People will also be able to see the show at Dreel Halls in Anstruther, Augustine United Church in Edinburgh, Cottiers Theatre in Glasgow, The Little Theatre in Dundee and MacArts in Galashiels.
Ferguson said: “I hope people enjoy it, and I hope it can educate in some sense.
“My main message is let’s just not have history be repeating itself here. We’re not in the 17th century anymore; people shouldn’t be talking the way they are.”