‘The Crucible’ is a dark, emotive play, and this production very much succeeded in doing in justice. It ticked (almost) every last box you could have hoped for.
There were a few opening night falters and stumbles. But, in a way, they fitted the over-bursting passion that exploded on stage. Lines trembled. But they trembled with forceful emotion, which, in the case of ‘The Crucible’, greatly benefitted from that blazing emotive power.
The opening atmosphere was oppressive and black, giving a sense of overwhelming pressure, which was emphasised by the startling use of lighting and a wonderful rolling audio loop of the Reverend Parris (played by Alec Burt) reciting a sermon. This was apparently taken from original Salem documents from the period, and greatly contributed to the unique feel of the production.
This was part of an effort made throughout the production to engage with the history of Salem and the witch trials. I thought it worked well, rooting the play in a very real context, making it believable and solid. The cast were human, fallible individuals, because they spoke in authentic accents from early America. They were not just people reciting lines but became actual, emotional figures that seemed to have experienced the things they talked about. If anything, that engagement with history fuelled the passion that burned through the production.
Constructing characters as deep and bleak as many of those in ‘The Crucible’ are to be human and relatable is an enormous challenge, but it was beautifully carried off. The raw emotion poured onto the stage was furious and inspirational. Zoe Spencer as Abigail was utterly real and dangerously likeable, making her manipulative nature completely believable, and the audience feel somehow implicit in her crimes. Joe Williams and Edd Riley, as John Proctor and the Reverend Hale respectively, also deserve mention for their credible development of character and the sympathy they managed to build as the plot progressed.
However, more broadly, the cast as a whole filled the production with power and empathy which buzzed and hung in the air. It had passion and guts, with hearts and souls put into every last line, and it was that passion that made it more than theatre. It was human, and you may not see that much human emotion on stage again for a very long time indeed.