THE ARTS ETC
__________________________________________________________________________
HARTFORD STAGE
PRESENTS
THE CRUCIBLE
BY
ARTHUR MILLER
DIRECTED BY GORDON EDELSTEIN
SEPTEMBER THROUGH OCTOBER 6, 2011
Hartford Stage Box Office 860-527-5151
Reviewed by Donna Bailey-Thompson
CRUCIBLE: 1. A vessel made of a refractory substance such as graphite or porcelain, used for melting and calcining materials at high temperatures. 2. A severe test, as of patience or belief; a trial. 3. A place, time, or situation characterized by the confluence of powerful intellectual, social, economic, or political forces. <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/crucible">crucible</a>
Arthur Miller could have named the play anything he wanted to: “crucible” is a perfect fit. The issues are volatile; a community is tested: the good, the bad, and the treacherous are confronted.
Towards the end of Act One, my blood was ready to boil over.
I’m getting ahead of myself.
The play opens after dark in the woods where girls are dancing with abandonment, shrieking through an elevated metal catwalk-like track, piercing screeches that jar one’s central nervous system. They tear at their white nightdresses; one girl exposes her breasts. We’re voyeurs witnessing mass hysteria.
From a low-brow perspective, The Crucible is a domestic thriller about a husband, John Proctor (Michael Laurence) who cheated on his wife during her long illness. The girl he dallied with, Abigail (Rachel Mewbron) wants the wife, Elizabeth (Kate Forbes) to die so she can take her place – legally. Somehow, Abigail’s subtle goading of impressionable adolescents finds fertile reception; the wanton girls become both victims and perpetrators of bogus witchcraft. A gadzillion decibels of screeching cacophony shatter the serenity of a country community (as well as the audience), plunging the self-possessed into a hell they created with malicious innuendos and lies.
Definitely not your typical bedroom farce.
Playwright Miller’s dialog – its cadence, precision vocabulary – and a sterling cast of actors who appear to have been born as their characters, elevate the baseness of the plot to high drama and ultimate tragedy: an opera-in-wailing. The trial, reminiscent of Salem Village court proceedings, is dominated by Deputy Governor Danforth (Sam Tsoutsouvas) who when not in awe of the law manipulates its bullying potential.
Two aging men, Giles Corey (Ron Crawford) and Francis Nurse (Joseph M. Kornfeld) fearful their wives, accused of being witches, may be hanged, are understandably confused by the Court’s inability to accept reason. Their love for their wives is touching; their bewilderment and impotency to protect them is heartbreaking. Mary Warren (Keira Keely) a girl who comes to her senses and stands up to difficult interrogation, strains to do right until her resolve evaporates under Abigail’s withering taunting. The bluster of Reverend Hale (David Barlow) and Reverend Samuel Parris (Tom Beckett), although intrinsically weak, misguided representatives of a vengeful God, are the antitheses of holy.
Guest director of The Crucible is Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven whose superb 2006 Hartford Stage production of O’Neill’s “The Moon for the Misbegotten” danced rings around the Old Vic production starring Kevin Spacey. As with Moon, Edelstein stops short of over punching scenes in The Crucible. However, when appropriate, he’s not afraid to let all hell break loose. His clean, respectful direction is a pleasure to experience.
Is The Crucible an allegory for the witch-hunting of Senator Joe McCarthy or the House Un-American Activities Committee or in present time a fogged mirror held up to a congressional trio who in their zeal to bring down a president are short-changing American citizens? Prominently displayed on the back wall of the set was this infamous quote spoken by a pugilistic president: “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”
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