





Witches Gets
First performed as part of Cymera Festival, The Pleasance, Edinburgh, June 8th & 9th 2019 & at The Audacious Women’s Festival, Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh February 20th 2020.
Selection of Reviews and Audience Responses to WITCHES’ GETS
Emotionally gripping and beautifully performed, Witches’ Gets, grabbed its audience with both hands and refused to let go until the lights went up.
(Dawn Geddes, The Scots Magazine)
‘This production is full of beautiful poetic language, rustic yet stunning costumes, and some truly powerful moments with a strong cast and great writing.’
(Rhona Mackay, Edinburgh Guide)
I attended ‘Witch’s Gets’ at the Cymera Festival, Edinburgh. The play is based on the true story of Norwegian witch trials on the arctic island of Vardø over three hundred years ago. I was very interested to learn whether such a dark and harrowing tale could be successfully distilled into a 55-minute piece of theatre, and I was not disappointed. The expectant hush from the audience as we took our seats before the minimalist, candlelit set was palpable, and from the opening lines, the all-female cast swept us up in a maelstrom of claim and counter-claim, recrimination, bitterness and grief.
The brutality of what happened to those young women in what became known as The Witch Panic of 1662 was laid before us in forensic detail; the accusations, the politics, the grudges, all steeped in a climate of superstition and fear. The performances were bold and powerful, sometimes whimsical and always poignant. Written by Noelle Harrison, the script was raw, unflinching but strangely poetic, as charms and incantations swept through the space.
This play, blending as it does spoken word, film projection, music, and movement, is based on Harrison’s novel Where the Ice Burns. The projected segments, which portray a young Scottish woman researching the trials and questioning her own identity and heritage bring the piece bang up to date, a timely reminder that in a world ruled by men, female power is still considered a dark force to be reckoned with.
A haunting, relevant piece of theatre, which kept me on the edge of my seat and thinking about it long after it ended. We all have traits, which may once have singled us out as witches. The plays hashtag #onceawitch continues a conversation begun 300 years ago and still totally relevant today.
(Sandra Ireland, author of Bone Deep, The Unmaking of Ellie Rook, and Underneath the Skin.)
Witches Gets is a thoroughly immersive experience, where you are taken back to the frightening hysteria of 1600s Norwegian witch hunts, as brought to life by a girl in current day Scotland who is facing her own battles. If she’d lived hundreds of years ago, would she have been branded a witch too? Through letters of the time, she becomes haunted by the girls who came before her, while the audience is similarly haunted by the spectacle before them.
The passion of the cast acting out their roles so expertly and in such close proximity to the audience enhances the viewing experience, ensuring that it remains something that sticks with the viewer long after the last word has been spoken. Noelle Harrison has created a visual work of art that I would definitely recommend.
(Elizabeth Frattaroli, writer)
My friend Shirley and I both enjoyed the play immensely. On our way back to Glasgow we could not stop talking about the stories and fates of these (and so many other) women. As both of us are creative and interested in the unseen unknown forces that drive us we could also identify with the video clips of Kim’s obsession, and her long painful pregnancy and labour of these voices.
(Nadja Andersson, illustrator and editor of Hex Magazine)
Witches’ Gets was incredible! Beautifully written and directed. Each cast member was flawless and convincing. It’s a true skill to be able to portray raw emotion while also injecting humour – especially in a performance that highlights a moment in history that many would have us forget. You took us on a journey and kept us buckled in to the end.
(Andrew Dickie, Yoga Teacher & International Development)
Witches’ Gets is a spellbinding multimedia performance. Exploring through layers of narrative set in the present and the past, it tells the story of the women and girls accused of witchcraft in Vardø in Norway. I was lucky enough to have a seat for opening night and was enthralled from start to finish, immersed in this dark story burning white hot from the shadows of the past. Good theatre is good for the creative soul.
(Elizabeth McIvor, writer)

The Good Sister
Aurora Theatre Company
Created in collaboration with Donna Ansley & Kate Pengelly
First performed The Ramor Theatre, Virginia, County Cavan, Ireland. 2005
Niamh was an angel. At least she had the voice and face of one. Ten years ago she mysteriously drowned in the local lake, while out with her two older sisters, Edel and Catriona, identical twins. Was it an accident? Or was there something darker lurking beneath the sky that bleak winter’s day? A struggle between three siblings for love and eternity?

Black Virgin
Aurora Theatre Company
First performed Dublin Fringe Festival 1995
Black Virgin is based upon Mary Magdalene’s and her Egyptian maidservant, Sara’s exile from Egypt, in the years following the resurrection. They are put to sea in a boat with two other women, Mary Salome and Mary, Mother of James. BLACK VIRGIN follows the journey of the four women from Egypt to their final destination, the Camargue in the south of France from whence springs the Cult of the Black Virgin. The women travel from the edge of despair, rejection and desolation to a sense of hope and belief in their own self and sensuality through the teaching and healing of Sara, who is transformed from servant to an image of a goddess.

Northern Landscapes
Aurora Theatre Company
Music, slides and film accentuate the poetic narrative. The different media act as fragments from the subconscious of the characters, and at the same time lead you through the different landscapes of the play.
In Noelle Harrison ……we have found a passionate, poetic and distinctive new voice.
Irish Independent
Northern Landscapes….is an intriguing exploration of the damaged psyche of women brutalised by men who should have cherished them.
The Irish Times
Northern Landscapes is an important work that deserves a much wider audience.
Evening Press