THE 4TH WITCH — Julia Miller

“a dark work, full of pain and loss, but the darkness lifts”

Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times

Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch is a fantastic new tale, inspired by elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which a girl escapes war and flees into a dark forest. Told through shadow puppetry, actors in silhouette and live music (without dialogue or narration), The 4th Witch begins on the eve of an invasion of a small town by the local warlord, Macbeth. The girl flees the invading army and escapes into the nearby forest. Orphaned and exiled, she is rescued by a witch, who adopts her as an apprentice. As she becomes more skilled in witchcraft, her grief and rage draw her into a nightmarish quest for vengeance against the warlord who killed her parents: Macbeth.

The 4th Witch, an inversion of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, explores themes of grief, war, generational conflict, and cycles of violence through the collateral damage left behind on the battleground.

The 4th Witch premiered June 4-8 2025 at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC and was co-commissioned by Spoleto Festival, CalPerformances, Arts Emerson and Wisconsin Union Theater.