The Crucible - Review

This solid production of The Crucible remains faithful to Arthur Miller's surface story of hysteria in small-town colonial America.

Audiences at the 1953 Broadway premiere took Miller's dramatisation of the 1692 Salem witch trials in the fundamentalist theocracy of Massachusetts as an allegory on the congressional committee on Un-American Activities, of which Miller was later a victim.

The conflict between judicial vigilance and individual liberty is so central to life in a democracy that lines such as "A person is either with this court or must be counted against it" seem to have been lifted from more recent newspaper headlines (think Bill Henson, David Hicks).

But by keeping true to the play's literal roots, artistic director Louise Fischer's production allows audiences any wider interpretation they choose. Her one major departure from the script however wins clarity and dramatic impact: she opens by showing us the criminal incident that led to 19 hangings and further bloodshed - a group of local girls dancing in the woods.

The daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris (Anthony Weir) is accused, but he is more worried about losing his job. He sends for Reverend John Hale, an expert on witchcraft, to dispel suspicions that his family has been assisting the devil. The well-intended investigations by this decent man, convincingly played by Barry French, shows how the prospect of torture and execution tend to produce falsehoods in confession and testimony. Farmer John Proctor (Ben Brock) is incidentally accused of adultery and his good wife Elizabeth is called to testify against him. The Goodwife (or "Goody") Proctor, played by Belinda Gosbee, is a shining icon of dignity in a swamp of human failings.

The cast and costumes are visually ideal, but recordings of orchestral classics give the feel of low-budget cinema rather than high-quality theatre, and the timing of dialogue and movements are sometimes a little jittery.
Yet the large cast (over 20) deliver uniformly good acting, and this scale and quality is essential to the play's success: we feel caught up in the town's hysteria and have to admit we are not immune to the same forces in our global village today.

The Crucible is on until Thur August 28.

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