The Witch of Prague
Adapted for the stage and Directed by Jason LaSusa
Contact: [email protected] for more information.
Visit the website: http://witchofprague.com/Cast.html for information about the show and to check out our cast.
The setting is "once upon a time" in Prague.
The Wanderer finds himself there, searching for his lost love Beatrice. In this search, he discovers a witch, Unorna.
Unorna has mysterious and mystical powers, including the control of people's minds. She can bend them to her will.
Men become mesmorized and enthralled by her. But with the Wanderer, her powers do not seem to work the same way as they do with other men. She desires him, but he isn't taken by her.
Reluctantly she uses her powers on him. But it never seems to work quite right as he seems to never bend to her will.
As the main plot unfolds, the play is enrichened by a number of intriguing sub-plots, involving colorful characters. One sub-plot surrounds Keyork Arabian. He is a scientist and philosopher wishing to achieve immortality. He hopes that the combination of his scientific knowledge and Unorna's powers can achieve that goal. They have been prolonging the life of an old man called The Sleeper, but though alive, he is rarely awake. Keyork and Unorna have an uneasy partnership, as their goals diverge.
Israel Kafta is enthralled with Unorna and would do anything do win her love. But she is mostly indifferent to him. The difficulty he has coping with her rejection unravels a chain of events that affects every character in the play.
The Witch of Prague was written as a novel in 1891 by F. Marion Crawford. It is presented here in play form for the first time.
From Vol 12 of 20th century literary criticism,
WP Trent: "The Witch of Prague is the most remarkable story of its kind ever conceived... it is powerful and daring and such a story as few living men could have written."
John C. Moran: "In writing The Witch of Prague Crawford removed any restriction on his imagination, thereby creating a mosaic composed of many elements of weird and fantastic fiction."
