Synopsis Salem, Massachusetts 1692. When the stories of three local girls are taken as gospel, a small village populated by Puritans and petty local rivalries, is thrown into panic by talk of witchcraft. The community begins to purge itself, and as accusations fly suspicion alone is accepted as evidence. Written during the vigorous and unscrupulous investigations of Senator J R McCarthy in 1950's America. The Crucible is a timeless portrayal of communal hysteria and the evil of mindless persecution. Presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Ltd.
There are some plays whose time is always now, and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible - ostensibly a study of the Salem witch hunt in 1692, but in reality a portrait of any community in the grip of mass hysteria and moral paranoia - is one of them.
You might argue – I frequently do – that the difference between good drama and great theatre is the ability of the latter to strike a rich metaphorical vein while enthralling an audience with detail of argument and character.
In the 20th-century repertoire, you would be hard pushed to find a better example than The Crucible (1953) which, alongside Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (1904), best illustrates, and with ominous precision, the way of the world in the destiny of its characters.
Dominic Cooke’s revival for the Royal Shakespeare Company was acclaimed in Stratford-upon-Avon in March and arrives in the West End, all guns blazing, under the joint production banner of Bill Kenwright and Thelma Holt.
The play was the second-ever in the history of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court – a few weeks before Look Back in Anger in 1956 – and it now seems no accident that Cooke, a lynchpin of Michael Boyd’s re-modelled RSC directorate, will soon take over in Sloane Square.
Cooke's company here is etched in a stark silhouette of power and fury against Hildegard Bechtler’s puritanical white setting, where the great, flawed figure of Iain Glen’s momentous John Proctor tries to save his wife (a magnificent, tremulous Helen Schlesinger) by confessing to adultery and thus underpinning the hysterical accusation of Elaine Cassidy’s Abigail Williams.
The affair is in the past but the new order of righteous indignation, a parallel in the early 1950s with Senator Joe McCarthy’s “red menace” show trials for supposed Communists, brings it messily into the present. There were times when the satanic threat to a democratic, humane stability seemed laughable. Not any more. Religious fundamentalism can appear to be the opposite of its own purpose and aspiration.
The clarity and vigour of James Laurenson’s Deputy-Governor Danforth, and the emotional fervour of Ian Gelder’s Reverend Parris convey both the hard edge and moral complexity of a society pitched fatally at odds with itself.
- Michael Coveney
NOTE: The following FIVE-STAR review dates from March 2006 and this production's earlier run in Stratford-upon-Avon.
I must admit to having been less than overwhelmed at the prospect of yet another trip to New England, but the virtue of Dominic Cooke's tremendous production is to remind one of the strengths of the late dramatist Arthur Miller rather than his shortcomings.
Moral rectitude and a passion for truth-telling are admirable qualities to be sure; qualities which Miller, a fine man, had in spades. But they don't make for easy company, nor do they necessarily make for a good night in the theatre.
The Crucible, it has to be said, does not contain many laughs. But Miller's prose, which should serve as a model for all those writing historical drama, is as spare, formal and as elegant as the Old Testament of the King James Bible. And anyone with an eye to see and an ear to hear ought to be beguiled by Hildegard Bechtler's stunning design, wonderfully lit by Jean Kalman, creating a world crepuscular - slanting light from high windows throwing shadows on the courtroom walls - or plunged into darkness.
And, alas, the play is as pertinent now as it ever was, as accusations of witchcraft fly among a small puritanical community until almost all the characters stand condemned. Deputy-Governor Danforth's pronouncement that, "A person is either with this court, or he must be counted against it; there be no road between", captures the way both Bush and those he would wage war on see the world in black and white. Cooke, rightly, does not force the parallels, which, he notes, changed as the production developed.
At the heart of this production is a terrific performance by Iain Glen as John Proctor who charts this pilgrim's progress with consummate skill and charisma. And there is first-rate ensemble work, notably by James Laurenson as the steely Danforth, Ian Gelder as the morally rudderless Reverend Parris, Trevor Peacock as Giles Corey and Michelle Terry as young Mary Warren.
Great, great theatre. Spellbinding - even though I had seats in the Upper Circle and could only see half the stage. Never sit in the Upper Circle at the Gielgud. Awful seats. - 84.12.75.68)
07 Jun 06
Almost perfect on every level. - 62.253.96.46)
11 May 06
Though a huge Miller fan, I'd never considered The Crucible in the same league as Death of a Salesman or All My Sons. This production is a therefore a revelation. In staging and performance it is faultless, but above all it brings out a modern relevance as strong as the original in the McCarthy era. There are lines that will make you wince and gasp as you will have heard the same or similar very recently from the mouths of today's politicians. The parallels with fundamentalist religions and wars 'in the name of god' are astonishing. This is a most fitting tribute to Arthur Miller - to take a 50-yr old play set 300 yrs ago and make it the most contemporary play in the West End. Many congratulations to the RSC and to Bill Kenwright and Thelma Holt for again giving us the opportunity to see the best of Stratford in London. - 86.130.212.65)
06 May 06
My initial disappointment in only being able to get a seat in the front row was swept away by the power of this wonderful production. Totally engaging from beginning to end; superb performances. This must be the definitive production of this play. Go see it! - 84.66.237.167)
23 Apr 06
Wow! Quite simply one of the most perfect nights in the theatre I have ever experienced. I wouldn't change a thing about it. Absolutely impeccable acting by a first rate cast. I can't remember the last time I cried in the theatre, not once but three times. Even though this is a play I am very familiar with, it felt so fresh that I was actually willing the characters to do other than I already knew they would do. I could barely speak when I came out. I've recommended this to friends who have never been to a single play before, the only thing worrying me about this is the fact that if this is the bench mark by which they judge other plays they are going to be sorely disappointed in the future! - 81.158.198.47)
12 Apr 06
This is what good theatre is all about. A great story really well written and fantastic actors that have the ability to transport an audience to another world for a couple of hours. I have never seen a production of the play before and was quite shocked at how much is relevant today. You could almost hear the Bush/Blair administrations justifying their actions with the lines used by the religious and court officials. - 193.201.196.10)
11 Apr 06
Absolutely unmissable: a gripping, starkly beautiful account of a classic, terrifyingly relevant play. There is not a single weak link in the cast, but Iain Glen's John Proctor is maybe the highlight of his career thus far, and Helen Schlesinger's lovely, selfless performance as his wife moved me to tears. Also Elaine Cassidy's scheming young temptress is scarily believable. A magnificent addition to the West End. - 195.82.123.181)
06 Apr 06
I thought I had seen this play so many times I was sick of it: from studying it at University, to countless regional productions both professional and amateur, one actually performed in Salem Massachussets, an arrestingly stylised version of it done by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company at, I think, the Mermaid, and if I haven't hallucinated a wierd TV-spinoff with Vanessa Redgrave.
Nothing, though, prepared me for the clarity and immediacy of this superb production. The text seems fresh and new, like listening to the most enthralling evidence in a courtroom drama, the human suffering and repression is pictured with depth as every single actor finds the substext to breathe full three dimensional life into characters which Miller sometimes overlooked. This is particularly evident in the patient suffering of the husbands of condemned wives, Clifford Rose's stoic Francis Nurse and Trevor Peacock's brave - and I expect best-supporting-actor award-winning - Giles Corey.
Ian Glen completely erases the shameful memory of Martin Guerre in a powerful performance which completely holds this vast stage. His internal moral struggle is paced to perfection, and the breaking point when it comes is terrible to behold, and thrilling theatre.
There really isn't a bad performance in this excellent cast, but two more deserve special praise ... Ian Gelder for his irritating, bitter, mean-spririted cleric Reverend Parris - a portrayal so perfect in its compressed anger that you really want to hit him, and Michelle Terry's frightened and desperate Mary Warren, whose twists and turns of her tortured soul play as a marvellous counterpoint to Ian Glen's angry man.
The "children" (a remarkable collection of shapes and sizes) who are caught up in the witchcraft/delusional drama are again played brilliantly to the point that you want to slap every one of them into sense.
A stunningly designed set - we could be in Chekhovian Russia with the white rooms and the bare forest outside - gives more universality to this timeless piece, and reinforces the relevance to every time and every society including the present day.
This could almost be Blair's Witch Project, it's so immediate.
Kudos to the RSC, of course, but also to a come-of-age Bill Kenwright for bringing this production into town.
- 195.93.21.98)
02 Apr 06
Rather longer ago than I care to think (in the early 1970's, when I was in my mid-teens, actually) I studied The Crucible at school, an experience which I did not find enjoyable. Perhaps because the events which inspired Arthur Miller to write his play about the Salem witch-trials – the Communist witch-hunts in America – were still relatively recent, I found the work touched a very raw nerve (as indeed, its author intended that it should).
Just how raw can be judged from the fact that I have never re-read the play since, and that, had not the RSC put it on in Stratford, I would probably never have contemplated going to see it. But I am happy to say that, although the nerve is arguably even more exposed now, and that I am still sure this is a play I will never "like", Dominic Cooke's production was superb, compounded of a stunningly minimalist design (by Hildegard Bechtler) in which the houses and courtroom of Salem, with their white-painted interior walls and simple wooden furniture, are hemmed in by a forest of bare-branched trees, and a fine ensemble performance from the cast.
Iain Glen's John Proctor almost made the theatre shake, as well as the other characters on stage recoil in horror, when he jumped onto a table, spread his arms wide, and shouted "God is dead", and he had me on the edge of my seat with anxiety over whether he would retract his false "confession" of involvement with the Devil. And Michelle Terry made Mary Warren, terrified by the courtroom antics of her friends into withdrawing her admission that their claims of having seen and been possessed by spirits were all a pretence, a very moving figure. Also of particular note was James Laurenson's Deputy Governor Danforth who, even when doubts had arisen over the truth of the allegations of witchcraft, refused to postpone any hangings because he could not then justify the executions which had already been carried out.
The play seems even more disturbing now than it used to, of course, because it has a chilling modern relevance that cannot fail to strike an audience even when, as here, no attempt is made to remove it from its original period, and it is a sad indictment of our times that words about a prisoner being put in chains bring to our minds events which are strictly contemporary with ourselves.
Perhaps some modern leaders would benefit from seeing this production, but it seems all too likely that they would only view it as a condemnation of the violence and repression carried out in the name of religious and/or political extremism and hence believe that it supports their positions.
But of course what Arthur Miller was really denouncing – and this is the message that should ring out loudly to us today – is the threat posed to personal freedom by the actions taken by those in authority to counter the extremists.
- 194.75.129.200)
20 Mar 06
This is theatre at its very best. The perfect prose of Arthur Miller needing no introduction nor explanation. It is a morality play for the ages and to tie it down to one time period is to take away from its powerful and timeless message. The production itself is taut and suspenseful, building momentum with each scene to the rivetting and gut wrenching climax. Iain Glen, as the hero John Proctor, is larger than life. A striding, confident stallion who tries to be the voice of reason only to be ensnared by his own imperfection. With great gulping cries of self disgust he admits his guilt and faces down his wife's accuser as the "whore" and vindictive person she is. But tricked by the court, his wife betrays him. The stark contrast between the John Proctor of the early scenes and the final one is aching. After months of confinement and torture, he is a trembling shell of a man. Still trying to do what is right, battling the will to live with the need to remain true to himself. Though a rich enemble piece, it is Iain Glen's humanity that carries the whole production to its poignant conclusion. I thought Trevor Peacock, as the befuddled Giles Corey especially effective at putting a face on the confusion of the court's procedings. I found Elaine Cassidy's Abigail rather unconvincing as either the seductress or the powerful ring leader of the girls. I am surprised that no one has mentioned the evident symbolism found in the set, lighting, and the costuming. The sparse furnishings and harsh cold lighting underline the central theme of the people who inhabit the structures. Indeed the only warmth is in the cabin of John Proctor where a fire burns on the grate, a large pot of soup boils and the softer lighting conveys a closer feeling. Fittingly, the temptress Abigail is in red; Elzabeth the repressed wife in icy blue; John in soft brown leather and Mary Warren in tan showing her position between the other girls and her foray into siding with John Proctor. I don't think it is accidental that two of the judges look as though they convened the Spanish Inquisition and the two jailers are dressed as a Puritan version of Nazis. They display high boots, with breeches tucked in and a leather belt with diagonal shoulder strap for the yet to be invented side-arm. This is rivetting entertainment. I am glad it is getting a West End transfer as more people will be able to see this amazing production. Plus they will get to enjoy it without bus loads of clueless teenagers whose teachers might have spent more time teaching them about the story and general theatre etiquette. If you love good theatre, don't miss this show. - 70.242.44.186)
Originally opened 27Dec 1906 as The Hicks Theatre. Formerly The Globe, renamed in 1994 in part in tribute to Sam Wanamaker, so that his dream of a new Shakespeare Globe would be the only Globe in London. 983 seats. Society of London Theatre member. In 1999 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Limited acquired the freehold of the Queen s and the Gielgud Theatres from Christ s Hospital, Horsham. The lease of the Gielgud Theatre will revert back from Really Useful Theatres to Delfont Mackintosh Theatres in March 2006 after which there are plans to refurbish both venues and to build a 500-seat theatre, The Sondheim, above the Queen s. This will be the first new theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue since 1931.
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