The Last Witch (NHB Modern Plays)

A play about the last woman to be executed for witchcraft in Scotland, The Last Witch explores the psychological rifts that can divide close communities and drive families apart. Dornoch, northern Scotland, 1727. In the claustrophobic heat of summer, a woman's apparent ability to manipulate the power of land and sea stirs suspicion. Janet Horne can cure beasts, call the wind and charm fish out of the sea. Or can she? Her refusal to deny the charge of witchcraft puts her in dangerous opposition to the new sheriff. Her defiance threatens not only her own life but that of her daughter... Rona Munro's play The Last Witch is based on the historical account of Janet Horne, the last woman to be executed for witchcraft in Scotland. The play was commissioned by Edinburgh International Festival and co-produced by the Festival and the Traverse Theatre Company. It opened at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2009. 'Thrilling... seethes with poetry and emotion and is entirely gripping' - Guardian 'A powerful, poetic and unsettling supernatural thriller' - Scotsman

Rona Munro has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television including the award-winning plays The James Plays trilogy (National Theatre of Scotland, the Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain), Iron (Traverse Theatre and Royal Court, London), Bold Girls (7:84 and Hampstead Theatre) and The Maiden Stone (Hampstead Theatre). Other credits include Scuttlers for Manchester's Royal Exchange, The Last Witch for the Traverse Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival, Long Time Dead for Paines Plough and the Drum Theatre Plymouth, The Indian Boy and Little Eagles for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Pandas for the Traverse in Edinburgh. She is the co-founder, with actress Fiona Knowles, of Scotland's oldest continuously performing, small-scale touring theatre company, The Msfits. Their one-woman shows have toured every year since 1986. Film and television work includes the Ken Loach film Ladybird Ladybird, Aimee and Jaguar and television dramas Rehab (directed by Antonia Bird) and BAFTA-nominated Bumping the Odds for the BBC. She has also written many other single plays for television and contributed to series including Casualty and Dr Who. Most recently, she wrote the screenplay for Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach and starring Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving. She has contributed several radio plays to the Stanley Baxter Playhouse series on BBC Radio 4.