The Sorceress: A Drama in Five Acts

Spain, 16th century. The Reconquista has ended, but the persecution has only begun. Zoraya, a Moorish woman living under Christian rule, faces accusation of sorcery a charge that means death. Don Enrique, a Castilian officer tasked with her interrogation, should be her judge. Instead, he finds himself caught between his duty to the Crown and a forbidden pull toward the woman he cannot save. Around them, the remnants of a conquered people converted or hunted, their crimes existing while breathing while different. The play opens with peasants arrested for stealing the body of Kalem, a young Moor stoned to death for loving a Christian girl. This murdered love echoes through every scene, foreshadowing the tragedy to come. Sardou builds his drama with mounting tension toward an inevitable, devastating conclusion. The real horror lies not in witchcraft but in what decent people do when society demands cruelty. This is a play about the price of prejudice and how it poisons everyone, perpetrator and victim alike.