From left: Diana Vickers (Ensemble), Rosalind Ford (Ensemble), and Lauryn Redding (Nowell) in Coven [Marc Brenner]

COVEN
Kiln Theatre
3 stars

MANY of the notorious witch- hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries arose from quarrels between impoverished families; children were often questioned and their testimony was central to the prosecutions.

Rebecca Brewer and Daisy Chute draw on this history, using the Pendle Witch Trials as inspiration and setting their musical in 1633, when Jenet Device was accused of witchcraft by an 11-year-old boy.

Coven opens in a prison in Pendle, Lancashire, 21 years after the 1612 trial.

Later, an extended flashback shows Jenet – represented as a puppet – participating as a child witness, accusing her own family of witchcraft and condemning them to death.

Now an adult, Jenet (Gabrielle Brooks) is incarcerated alongside several local women: Frances (Shiloh Coke); Nell (Allyson Ava-Brown), a midwife; Maggie (Jacinta Whyte), a healer; and Rose (Lauryn Redding), who is pregnant, together with her mother Martha (Penny Layden).

From left: Rosalind Ford (Ensemble), Gabrielle Brooks (Jenet), and Holly Mallet (Ensemble) in Coven [Marc Brenner]

Featuring an all-female musical ensemble, each prisoner is based on real women, most of whom suffered at the hands of men through rape, abandonment or exploitation, and who display varying degrees of defiance.

The live musicians are excellent, and the singers first-rate, each given space to shine. Brewer and Chute’s score offers a good mix of blues, pop, folk and anthemic numbers, including some crowd-pleasers.

The lyrics reflect the women’s resilience, although Brewer’s book is uneven in places.

There is much to admire in Miranda Cromwell’s lively production, yet it sometimes strains under the weight of competing themes, from the enclosure of the commons to the misogyny of church and state.

While the moments of levity are welcome, the shifts in tone, flashback, and atmosphere leave the show feeling fragmented.

A stronger, leaner narrative focus would make it more compelling.

Until January 17
kilntheatre.com/