The script employs features of the epic theater associated with German playwright Bertolt Brecht, particularly through use of song as well as the added anachronism of the actors, who performed music in modern dress, despite the play's 17th century setting.
The play focuses on Alice, who with her mother Joan is accused of witchcraft by their neighbours, married couple Jack and Margery, after the latters' numerous failures including failed economic expansion, unsuccessful marital relations and agricultural misfortunes.
The narrative becomes a tale of the 17th century England using witchcraft as a means to shift the blame towards nonconforming woman such as the old, poor, single, cunning or skilled, to help temper social unrest.
It was directed by Pam Brighton[2] while the original cast included:[7] The opening of the play shows a woman (Alice.
Rather than individualising the character 'Man' by giving him a name, Churchill uses a shorthand, story-telling technique, as used by Brecht, in order to show a 'type' or 'archetype', to the audience.
[8] The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature (2006) describes Vinegar Tom as "a complex and historically expansive investigation of the policing of women's bodies and desires".