THE SERPENT UNDER IT – DRAMA PLAY ABOUT HELEN DUNCAN – SCOTLAND’S LAST WITCH

This play about Helen Duncan is based on a true story. She was a spiritualist medium imprisoned towards the end of the Second World War under the 1734 Witchcraft Act. It is a story of Government hypocrisy, personal tragedy and wartime dilemmas and it had and retains a mystery at its heart.

A multi-faceted, complex play which invokes either sympathy or dislike for the characters and the situations in which they find themselves yet encourages the viewer to question their own feelings. Given the circumstances, would the viewer react as did the characters in the play or would they react differently? The play encourages a deeper understanding of the world and our part we play in it.

From a production viewpoint, this play about Helen Duncan has some challenging roles for actors to get their teeth into and also some smaller parts for new actors to gain experience.

The Witchcraft Act 1735 remained in force in Britain well into the 20th century, until its eventual repeal with the enactment of the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 – Wikipedia.

Author: Richard Moore

Genre: Biography, play about Helen Duncan

Type: Two-act play

Cast: 23F, 26M – many smaller parts can be doubled

Ages of the actors: Cast all adult except for young Nell.

Suitable for: All ages

Length: 3 hours – author will allow workshopping

Set: Various

Level of Difficulty: 8/10 – length of play and cast size.

Read a Sample of the Script

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Contact Off The Wall plays with any queries about The serpent under it

Copyright © October 2015 Richard Moore and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other biographies we stock:

Disney in Deutschland – play about the relationship between Disney and Hitler
And all his songs were sad – biography of the life and works of Sean McCarthy
Lies you can’t make up – drama about JFK conspiracy