Wilde

This is a wonderful story of finding one’s place and accepting who you are.

Wilde has been expelled from school yet again and arrives in an unprecedented heatwave to stay with her aunt in the village which she has not visited since she was a young child. Her mother and aunt had grown up there and Wilde is hoping to find out more about her mother who had died some years previously. The village has a terrible history of witch trials and local legend has it that a witch called Winter has cursed the village.

Wilde has always felt different and she appears to attract trouble. She joins the local school as her aunt wants her to make friends but when birds start following her, she wonders if she will ever fit in anywhere. And to make matters worse she sometimes finds herself in impossible places such as rooftops and has no idea how she got there.

And then the bullying starts. Jemima and her friends begin a relentless campaign of taunts and snide remarks which escalates throughout the play the class are putting on which happens be the legend of the Witch, Winter. Disturbing notes are left for each person in the class threatening to curse them. Wilde does make one friend, Dorcus, but when Dorcus betrays her she is devastated. It is up to Wilde to put the record straight and retell the legend as it should be told. In doing so the class comes together in support to lift the curse and Wilde not only learns some family secrets but begins to accept her own destiny.

Intense, brooding, and atmospheric this is a beautifully told story of friendship and betrayal. Wilde’s voice is pitch perfect, quirky, determined and a little bit prickly but as she begins to understand why she is like she is she begins to believe in herself and realises she has made friends after all.