Soulpepper Theatre will present the Toronto premiere of Witch by Jen Silverman from January 29 to March 1, 2026 in Soulpepper’s Michael Young Theatre. The production is directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster, and stars stage and screen icon Tantoo Cardinal, who is taking the stage for the first time since 2018.
Also in the cast are Shawn Ahmed (as Frank Thorney), Thomas Mitchell Barnet (as Cuddy Banks), Oliver Dennis (as Sir Arthur Banks), Nicholas Eddie (as Scratch), and Heeyun Park 박희윤 (as Winnifred).
“WITCH is one of those plays that stares you straight in the eye,” shares Soulpepper Artistic Director Paolo Santalucia in a statement. “Jen Silverman takes a 400-year-old morality play and turns it into a darkly funny, modern showdown about power, desire, and who gets written off. We’re beyond thrilled to have Tantoo Cardinal at the centre of it. Her fierce legacy as an artist and activist stands in lockstep with Silverman’s text. It’s the kind of pairing you hope for when programming a play like this.”
The Play
The original play, The Witch of Edmonton, was written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford in 1621. In it, Elizabeth Sawyer is an old woman who’s been ostracized by her neighbours in the village of Edmonton, near London. To get her revenge, she sells her soul to the devil, who appears to her as a black dog named Tom. The devil’s work in Edmonton isn’t done, however, and he urges a bigamist to murder his second wife, among other things.
American playwright Jen Silverman’s satirical reimagining of the story is also set in a village called Edmonton. The devil arrives looking to instigate his brand of mischief. He targets a woman called Elizabeth, who’s been labelled as a witch by her community. But, this Elizabeth is not so easily persuaded. The devil comes back to try repeatedly to convince her to take revenge on her neighbours, sparking heated passions, creating alliances, and changes throughout the village that he didn’t bargain for.
Director Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster comments, “When I first read this play, I was drawn to the dark comedy of it, the mockery it makes of ego and desire, swirling around an unflappable female character. The Jacobean drama it is loosely based on was actually advertised as a witch-trial play (woman-hating entertainments that were very hot at the time), but in reality portrayed a woman unfairly ostracized and mistreated who is driven to turn on society. I loved that bait and switch of the story.”
Lancaster adds, “Jen Silverman has said, “To me, an adaptation is just choosing a different shaped window to look at what’s happening right now.” Personally, I need that window. ‘Now’, unfiltered, is too unbearable to look at directly.”
Tantoo Cardinal
Cree and Métis actor Tantoo Cardinal’s storied career spans five decades, and includes more than 120 roles in film, television, and on the theatrical stage. Her trailblazing work has helped to change the way that Indigenous people and stories are perceived.
She is one of the most widely recognized First Nations actors in the world, and has taken on a range of roles and characters that challenge stereotypes. Among her film credits, she appeared in the Oscar-winning Dances With Wolves (with Kevin Costner and Graham Greene), Legends of the Fall (with Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt), Black Robe, Smoke Signals, Wind River, Falls Around Her, and Martin Scorsese’s 10-time Oscar nominated Killers of the Flower Moon (with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro). On television, she played recurring character Marilyn Yarlott in the Netflix series Longmire.
In 2009, she was made a member of the Order of Canada, “for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada, as a screen and stage actress, and as a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company”. It’s one of several awards and accolades she’s received, including a Gemini, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement, among others.
Cardinal is also a prominent activist. In 2011, she, along with several others, was arrested protesting against the Keystone Pipeline.
On stage, she performed at the National Arts Centre in an all-Indigenous production of Shakespeare’s King Lear in 2012, was last on stage in Toronto in a production of Hamlet at the Tarragon Theatre in 2018.
Performances
Along with director, Ch’ng Lancaster, the creative team consists of: set designer Nick Blais, costume designer Ting-Huan 挺歡, Christine Urquhart, lighting designer Jareth Li, sound designer Olivia Wheeler, fight and intimacy director Anita Nittoly, and choreographer Monica Dottor.
WITCH is on stage January 29 to March 1.
- Find performance details and tickets [HERE].
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