The cast of The Dukes latest production in Lancaster have walked in the footsteps of some of the characters they will portray.
On the first day of rehearsals for the Lancashire Witches drama—Sabbat—the cast visited the Trough of Bowland, through which those accused of witchcraft are thought to have travelled, and were given a guided tour of Lancaster Castle where the witches were tried and imprisoned.
Lancaster-based Christine Mackie, who plays Alice Nutter, joined the Sabbat rehearsals after filming Downton Abbey in which she appears again as Daphne Bryant.
And another familiar face from television in the cast is Nisa Cole who played schoolgirl Amy Porter in three series of BBC1's Waterloo Road.
She is one of two cast members new to The Dukes production of Sabbat which was first staged at the Lancaster theatre in 2009 when it enjoyed a recordbreaking run.
The play imagines the events leading up to the trial and execution of the witches in Lancaster and asks how many lives were destroyed by laws born out of fear?
See our special feature on the production.
Details: www.dukes-lancaster.org