Matthew Hopkins: it doesn’t sound like a name to strike fear into you does it?  In fact it sounds like the name of a dentist or a plumber or perhaps even your best friend from primary school.  But names can be misleading.  If you lived in East Anglia during the 1640s, particularly if you were a woman, no name, not even that of Satan himself, would strike more fear into your heart than that of Matthew Hopkins.  Why?  Well because Matthew Hopkins is better known by his self-given title – The Witchfinder General.

Born in Great Wenham, Suffolk, although more usually associated with the town he lived in during his adult life, Manningtree, Hopkins was the son of a Puritan parish clergyman.  England at that time was subsumed by the fallout and suspicion of a religious struggle which had lasted for over 100 years but which was now reaching its final acts.  Protestants and Catholics in Europe then were as irreconcilable as Sunni and Shia Muslims are in parts of the Middle East now and conducted the same outrages upon each other as these factions currently do.  Heresy was the main weapon of condemnation and it carried a stigma and outrage in society which only that of paedophile comes close to matching nowadays.  A person found guilty of heresy lost all rights and protection under the law and became a focal point upon which society could vent it’s fear and suppressed frustrations.   An accusation of heresy because you belonged to another Christian sect was bad enough but worse still was that of communing with the devil himself through acts of witchcraft.  It was with these accusations that Hopkins, and his accomplice John Stearne, used the uncertainty in social order caused by the English Civil War to inflict a short, but terrible influence over East Anglia, and in particular Suffolk, during a 14 month period from late 1644 until early 1646.

Historians estimate that during the 400 years from the early 15th century until the late 18th century there were approximately 500 executions resulting from trials for witchcraft.  Of this 500 Hopkins and Stearne were responsible for 300 during their fourteen month reign of terror.  That figure makes this pair the

Max Treur as Rebecca West

worst mass murderers in British history, crimes made even more heinous by the fact that they were sanctioned by both the church and the law.  Hopkins’ exploits inspired the infamous 1968 film Witchfinder General starring Vincent Price and Michael Redgrave as well as a number of heavy metal tunes but will, on July 27th and 28th, also provide the inspiration for a brand new, interactive musical.

The Witchfinder Project is the result of the combined creativity of composer Amy Mallet, dance and physical theatre choreographer Sarah Alexander and visual artist Emile Warnes.  Local production company Co.Here are responsible for putting the performance together and will use a combination of professional performers along with students from UCS, Suffolk One, Suffolk New College and Northgate and Farlingaye High Schools in a promenade performance in Ipswich Town Hall.  Having been part of a promenade performance at the Town Hall last year I know that its architecture lends itself well to this type of performance and it should provide a fantastic backdrop for this individual performance to unfold against.

Live music, film, improvisation and participation all await the audience in the Town Hall on the last weekend in July where they will be drawn through a living set into an immersive performance, the like of which they may well not have experienced before.  Composer Amy Mallett said ‘We are not aiming for this to be a traditional musical in any sense!  We want to invite the audience to feel part of the drama, so they can re-live this local tale in one of Ipswich’s most impressive historic buildings.’

It all sounds very interesting indeed and accords with Ipswich Borough Council’s desire to open up the Town Hall to the community.  Performances will take place on the 27th and 28th July as part of Ipswich Borough Council’s Access All Arts weekend.  There will be three performances each day at 2.30, 4.30 and 6.30pm.  Tickets are £7 and £5 for concessions and are available from the Ipswich Entertainments box office www.ipswichregent.com or by calling 01473 433100

Steve Hawthorne