Week 4: "Vinegar Tom" Characters & Their Actors

When Vinegar Tom was first brought to the stage in 1976, actors such as Roger Allam, probably best known for his role in The Thick Of It, and Mary McCuster were among the original cast. Vinegar Tom was presented for the first time at the Humberside Theatre in Hull.

Cast for London Metropolitan University's Theatre Studies class is as follows:

• Joan: Jade Jarvis
• Susan: Leia Ryan
• Alice: Migle Grakauskaite
• Packer: Cameron Bell
• Marjory: Emily Lodge
• Ellen: Nanna Remond
• Jack: Chris Barlow
• Doctor/Bellringer/Goodman: George Sesay
• Kramer & Sprenger: George Sesay/ Cameron Bell. 

Working on the text and acting as Assistant Director: Zdenka Prockova. 

Directed by: Christopher Holt.

Each actor has studied their character carefully throughout the play. When asked to describe their assigned characters, each actor said...

• Jade Jarvis of Joan: "She is Alice's mother, a busy-body, a gossip, a drunk...Not quite the full ticket.She has a poor attention span, is always in her own world, depended on by Alice, short tempered, manipulative, needy, extremely lonely, disliked by many, loved by very few!"

• Leia Ryan of Susan:

• Migle Grakauskaite of Alice: "She is strong, single mother, young, a free spirit, an adventurer, searches for love (in the broadest sense), a woman knight, a tomboy, and has her own interpretation of the world, i.e what is right, wrong and acceptable."

• Cameron Bell of Packer: "Packer comes to villages to find witches. He is a strong believer in God and is very ruthless when it comes to getting confessions from those accused, so that he may feel at ease that he has done right, no matter what the method used. He has a strong partnership with Goodman, with whom he shares his earnings."

• Emily Lodge of Marjory: "Marjory loves to be the better-off of the women in her village. She is very proud, especially of her husband Jack and what he has provided for her. She enjoys having power over her neighbours and feels no remorse over the bad deeds she commits."

• Nanna Remond of Ellen: "Ellen is middle-class, a known midwife to the women in the village, an adviser and problem solver, an indendant woman. She is unmarried, and wishes to pass on and teach her knowledge of good witchcraft. She believes in the good in people. She is a very misunderstood character."

• Chris Barlow of Jack: "Jack is a hard worker and provides well for his wife Marjory. He is quite frustrated (sexually!), gullable, angry, bitter and immature."

• George Sesay of Goodman: "Goodman, along with Packer, is a proud witch finder, Packer's assistant, come to "save people's lives" while admiring Packer's work. He is forceful while man handling women accused of being witches,and considers himself to be healthy by keeping the country healthy."