Roy Pugh's The Cauldron premiered by Malcolm Watson's Meanwhile Players

The Cauldron receives excellent reviews

The Meanwhile Theatre Company, led by Panner Malcolm Watson and now resident with the Prestoungrange Arts Festival, has received and clearly merit great acclaim for their first production at The Prestoungrange Gothenburg this Hallowe'en. The Cauldron had been expressly created by Roy Pugh as the second in his trilogy to commemorate the Barons' Courts Pardoning of the 81 Witches of Prestonpans at its Final Sitting in July 2004. We are in particular most grateful to the Hugh Fraser Foundation that made a grant in support of this production with the balance of support coming from the Barons Courts Charitable Foundation.

The Cauldron was premiered on October 28th and produced at Glasgow Caledonian University on October 31st for participants at the world's first international academic conference on Hallowe'en.

Eight of those wrongly executed in the 17th Century, whose names are recorded in the memorial garden facing south, were depicted in this play: Agnes Aird, Margaret Auchinmoutie, Christian Blaikie, Margaret Butter, Martha Butter, Helen Gibson, Janet Gray and Margaret Hall. They were held and cross examined without sleep for 16 days before confessing to their witchcraft thereby condemning themselves to death.

The Sunday Post is certainly premature in its suggestion that the annual commemorative ceremonies for the town's 81 Witches is likley to prove a money-spinner. What is clear however is that in the year's ahead the opportunity for self-financing activities has been proven.

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