HEXENHAMMER at The Vault’s Festival

Join us for the misadventures of Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. Two real medieval German monks. Who might have been the first incels.

They were real dudes who co-wrote Die Hexenhammer (The Hammer of Witches), a 15th-century guide to witch-hunting outsold only by the Bible; kick starting the European witch craze and likely responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of women over the next few hundred years.

Incorporating real text taken directly from Die Hexenhammer and real verbatim text found on online incel forums, HEXENHAMMER explores how men end up killing women as a way to solve their own problems, why that hasn’t changed in the past 500 years, and the uncomfortable role new technology plays – from the advent of the printing press to reddit chatrooms.

Beginning as a succession of short, fairly surreal comedic scenes this show builds into a crescendo of powerful comparisons that prove harrowing links between hatred of women 500 years ago and how little it appears to have changed within certain groups to this day.

Laugh-out-loud funny throughout both performers are fantastic at physical comedy and character performance which really elevates the show and leans into its more bizarre comedic elements.  It remains grounded in history and this contrast really catches the audience off guard as it reaches its finale.

The comparison between the witch hunts of medieval times and the speeches of modern-day conspiracy theory pushing incells feels uncomfortable familiar and all too real as the show forces us to ask how far we have really come in the generations between.   HEXENHAMMER is a show that will make you laugh out loud throughout and then leave you with some serious contemplations by the end.

HEXENHAMMER is part of The Vaults Festival 2023.

Tickets were gifted in exchange for a review, all words and opinions are my own