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