The Witch and the Goat

An enchanting fairytale, written and produced by Fremantle’s Existence Theatre, mesmerising and not easily forgotten!

If you could only wish for one thing, what would it be? And the moral of the story? You can’t change things if you are driven by fear. By reawakening metaphorical beings, the performers grapple with the meaning and morality of deeply-rooted fears that are addressed in myths. Visit the mystical forest full of noise and the town square where people gossip and dance and have forgotten the story while others continue to believe in every word that is told.

Performed by Emma Benischauer, Elisabeth Eitelberger, Sarah Healy, Helah Milroy, Gala Shevtsov, Johanna Valency live sound by Bello Benischauer.

Some time ago a witch and her goat lived quite peacefully in the forest. One day a woman came running by and saw the witch. She granted the woman a wish and made her promise that she would not tell anyone about her existence. Not long afterwards, the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a little goat. She remembered the free wish and asked the goat to turn into a girl.

Much later, when this girl had grown into a woman herself and was running through the woods, the mother told her about the witch and the goat and broke her promise of not exposing them. The daughter did not listen and went back into the forest and of course met the witch. She also gave birth to a little goat, but decided not to use her wish because she wanted to avoid things happening again. She tried to find the witch and her goat, but they were gone. To escape the prying eyes of the people, she and her goat moved into the forest.

After a few years, a woman came running by and saw her. And because this woman seemed to be afraid of her, she realised that she had become the witch with the goat. Out of sheer horror, she decided to strangle the woman and eat her so that all this madness would come to an end. But after that, more and more women came into the forest and so she transformed from a life-giving to a life-taking witch, cursed by her own attempt to change fate.

Existence Theatre is a unique form of performance theatre, co-founded by interdisciplinary artists Bello Benischauer and Elisabeth M Eitelberger. Over the past twenty years, they have refined their practice while challenging theatrical and performative methods. Their explorations are site-specific works, known to be poignant, powerful, critical, non-conventional, poetic and surreal. Existence Theatre productions originate from an existential approach to examine questions about human identity and the meaning of life.

After showing productions at ECU Spectrum Project Space in 2019 and Girls School Perth in 2020, this is their third year of presenting work during Fringe World.