Vinegar Tom

Written in 1970, Vinegar Tom examines gender and power relationships through the lens of the 17th century witchcraft trials in England. The play outlines society’s rejection of people with differences – the old, the poor, the single, and the sexually unconventional. Based not on specific historical events but in a period when England’s last major witch hunt occurred, the women’s offences are petty to a contemporary audience but enough to find themselves accused of witchcraft, an offence that carried a death penalty.