Esmerelda the Witch
A mask play written by two 10-year-old children (Teacher Steve Pratchett)
This papier-mâché mask was made by two talented 10-year-old girls who named it ‘Esmerelda the Witch’. They asked their teacher if they could stay in at playtimes and lunchtimes to write a play to go with their mask. A week later they read their play script to the teacher and class who were so impressed that there and then it was agreed that the play would be produced during the drama lessons and then performed later in the term during assembly. The following photographs scanned from slides are a record of the final rehearsal. The children’s original script has been lost but the story is retold on the following pages as faithfully as possible by Steve Pratchett.
Esmerelda is a wicked witch who likes to make magic potions and spells. For some of her spells she grinds up the bones of animals. So she has developed all sorts of cunning tricks to capture creatures who live in the forest near to her cottage. Here she is trying to lure Mr Mouse out of his home with a piece of smelly cheese on the end of a fishing line.
When she has captured the forest creatures she hangs them out to dry in the sun on her washing line, very much like a gamekeeper hangs up the dead bodies of creatures which prey on his game birds to frighten away other predators. After several weeks she will grind up their bones and even some of their skin to make her wicked spells and potions.
Mr Mouse becomes very sad and lonely as he loses more and more of his friends into the clutches of Esmerelda, so one day he decides to shut up home and set off to seek help from the elves who live deep in the forest.
Mr Mouse finds the elves feeling rather bored and at a loose end so he tells them the sorry tale of Esmerelda’s evil influence over the forest and all his disappearing friends. (Note the child on the far left whose eyeball has fallen out of his mask in rehearsals. The children came up with the idea that he could be the elf who had the magic power to remove his eye and peer over walls and around tree trunks to spy on the witch. The scenery was painted by Steve Pratchett, who had a hobby of painting theatre scenery).
The elves gather together to hatch a plan to get rid of the witch. They decide that the best idea is for someone to provide a distraction so that they can steal her spell book and then use a spell against her, preferably one that will frighten away witches. Mr Mouse volunteers to distract the witch to give the elves an opportunity to snatch her spell book while she is not looking.
Things do not go totally according to plan. Mr Mouse gets captured by Esmerelda who prepares to boil him in her large cauldron so that she can use his bones for her latest, evil spell.
The elves managed to steal the witches spell book from under her nose while she was being distracted by Mr Mouse. They look through the book until they find a spell to dispose of witches. This spell requires three elements, which they now have to find but they have to work fast because Mr Mouse is in danger of being boiled alive by Esmerelda.
The first element needed for the spell is gold so the elf called ‘Quick as a Flash’, who can circumnavigate the world in five seconds, races to a wedding and snatches the wedding ring from the groom! (Note that the two playwrights have invented a character like Shakespeare’s Arial in the Tempest).
The second element needed for the spell is silver so Quick as Flash darts into public house to snatch a silver tankard from a farmer who is about to have a drink with his lunch.
The third ingredient needed for the spell is human hair so Quick as a Flash jumps over a fence into a garden and snatches a handful of hair from a lady planting flowers in her flowerbed.
The elves combine the three elements and chant the words in the spell book that will chase away witches. They are in the nick of time. Just as Mr Mouse prepares to meet his end, ‘The Spirit of Broomsticks’ appears and Esmerelda’s broomstick will no longer obey her. It begins to attack her and beat her about the head and body. She recoils in fear. (Note the wonderful expression of feeling expressed in the movements of the child’s foot and hands acting the role of Esmerelda. A touch of Punch & Judy here!)
The broomstick chases Esmerelda out of her home, out of the forest and around the world for eternity much to the delight of Mr Mouse and all the other creatures who have lived in fear of her for so long.
. (Note that to achieve a broomstick floating through the air as if by magic it was suspended from a curtain ring on a ‘washing line’ made of fishing line and a child reeled it along using his fishing rod!)
Some of the characters from the play.
The heads were made around balloons from papier-mâché by the children
The Spirit of Bromsticks /
Quick as a Flash
The elf who could remove his eyeball to spy on the witch /
Esmerelda, Mr Mouse and various elves