King Verence of Lancre [Lan-ker] is dead, killed by his own cousin, the slimy Duke Felmet! The King’s baby son is saved by a faithful servant and given to a coven of three witches on the blasted heath, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, who spirit the child away with a troupe of travelling players, along with the royal crown. The Kingdom is left to suffer under the rule of the Duke and his tyrannical wife, Lady Felmet. The witches confront the usurpers but are forced to back down, as magic cannot rule. Furious, Granny enacts a spell to hold the Kingdom still in time, allowing the prince to come of age. The prince, unaware of his true heritage, returns to Lancre with the theatre troupe. There, they perform a play commissioned by the Duke to tell the ‘truth’ about the old King’s death. With the aid of the Duke’s long-suffering Fool and a spot of magic and meddling from the witches, the real story comes out on the stage and the Felmets are deposed. Destiny is manifested and the prince is crowned as the new ruler… or is he!? Not everything is as it seems…
Wyrd Sisters takes elements of Hamlet and Macbeth and subverts them by changing the viewpoint, much like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and then inserting the story into a comic fantasy framework. Wyrd Sisters is written from the point of view of the three witches on the blasted heath, who originally appear to Macbeth. In this telling, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick are more than just bit-part supernatural foils and are instead complex, multi-dimensional characters. Similarly, the Felmets play around with expectations, with the hand-rubbing Duke, slowly losing his grip on reality, taking on characteristics of Lady Macbeth, while the domineering Duchess chews up the scenery with her bloody-minded ways.
Wyrd Sisters is a non-musical (but will have music in it!) adult production, but contains humour and themes suitable for family audiences. Like the best family productions, it has humour aimed at all ages, including riotous innuendo which will safely fly over the heads of the youngsters.
