Welcome to our Offbeat Spotlight series. Over the next few days we're highlighting all the strange and wonderful things that the Offbeat Festival has to offer. The Offbeat Festival runs from the 9th-15th of September, and is a collaboration between The Old Fire Station, Oxford Playhouse, New Theatre and Gloucester Green Market. In addition to a multitude of shows, there are also workshops, and exhibition, late night events including a poetry slam, comedy scratch night, and listening party, and more.
Here, we catch up with the delightful WhatNot Theatre, who create inclusive, interactive theatre for families. WhatNot will be bringing their show The Witch Without A Wand to life on Saturday morning. Follow Esmeralda Blunder, a kind but very clumsy witch, as she learns to embrace herself and work with her abilities rather than against them. The show was designed to be inclusive for Deaf, HoH, and Neurodivergent children (as well as everyone else!). Co-creators Emma and Lucy stopped by for a chat, find out more about the show and their creative process below.
Daily Information: Hi, thanks so much for taking time to tell us about The Witch Without a Wand. Could you tell us briefly what the show is about and who it is for?
WhatNot Theatre: The Witch without a Wand is a family friendly, relaxed & accessible show, with British Sign Language at the heart of the performance. We follow the antics of a young Witch called,Esmeralda Blunder, a lovable but calamity prone apprentice Witch who just can’t quite seem to master the art of spells and potions.
Patient Professor Charms and Miss Alchemy despair at Esmeralda’s mishaps, who is often found amongst a puff of smoke and an overflowing bubbling cauldron. But despite all her capers and an accidental Toad transformation, both tutors encourage the young Witch to persevere and work hard at her craft to pursue her dreams.
One blustery and thunderous night whilst rummaging through the ancient library, Esmeralda discovers a cobweb covered spell book hidden away. Containing a forgotten language of spell crafting where the hands create the magic to cast spells instead of a traditional wand, Esmeralda comes to realise that she is a natural.
The Witch Without a Wand is aimed at families with children aged 3+ but is suitable for all. It has been created with the deaf and hard of hearing community at its heart.
DI: Your show integrates British Sign Language into the performance. Why was this decision important to you?
WNT: A WhatNot show always includes a level of audience participation, which everyone is welcome to take part in. Alongside some clownish antics, where Lucy is often the butt of the joke, we always strive to offer a relaxed environment where the audience can enjoy our little bit of silliness.
The Witch without a Wand offers all of this but differs slightly in that the show is a collaboration developed with Sign Together, UK. Steph portrays the character of Miss Alchemy in the performance, a non-verbal matronly teacher at Charms School of Magic, who communicates purely through sign…encouraging the other characters and audience to join in and learn. We have loved the challenge of learning to seamlessly blend text and BSL, a new learning curve for us; “We are very proud to be a part of collaboration with the support of OffBeat and Sign Together UK, and we hope to continue to integrate BSL into our future productions.
DI: Besides Esmeralda, who are some of your other favourite fictional witches?
WNT: Lucy is the writer of WhatNot's shows and her inspiration came from the original Worst Witch, Mildred Hubble.
"Growing up I was a huge fan of the books; I just adore her calamitous efforts that always work out for the best, with her strong-hearted determination". Lucy says.
Emma grew up in musical theatre, and Lucy in pantomimes, so we have been far from a witchy character...and The Witch without a Wand embodies both of our love for these often misunderstood women.
DI:After Offbeat, what's next for you?
WNT: WhatNot are super lucky to have some exciting projects in the works; we are actually taking The Witch Without a Wand to Birmingham, where we regularly tour libraries.
Our show The Ugly Duckling will take stage at London's Half Moon Theatre this December, which Steph and Richard are going to help make a little more BSL friendly. As well as continuing our incredible relationship with Pegasus Theatre creating a new Sensory show for 0-3's for a community tour next year, we are in talks with Blenheim Palace to develop a programme of works for schools. So, a lot of incredible projects on the horizon that we can't wait to get stuck into!
DI: Finally, please describe The Witch Without a Wand in three words.
WNT: Witchy BSL Adventure
The Witch Without a Wand is on at the Burton Taylor Studio, Sat 14th Sep, 11am. For more info and to book tickets, click here.