The Crucible

Review

Under Martin Jenkins' direction, the brilliant L.A. Theatre Works actors give

performances that are intense, chilling and deeply moving. --_Tom Jacobs, The

Daily News, April 10, 1988_[HTML_REMOVED][HTML_REMOVED]At once an allegory of the 1950s' anti-

communist witch hunts and a spotlight on seventeenth-century witch trials in

Salem, Massachusetts, this play shows how ignorance and good intentions can

interweave to destroy lives. The star-studded cast ratchets the tension to a

disturbing level as the town disintegrates. The young girls playing at

witchcraft shriek in irregular counterpoint to the quiet, terrifying judgments

rendered by Reverend Harris (Michael York), and doubt is ever more audible in

the voice of Reverend Hale (Richard Dreyfuss). Most moving is Stacy Keach as

John Proctor, who fights to salvage some good from the trials that destroy

Salem. --AudioFile Magazine

At once an allegory of the 1950s' anti-communist witch hunts and a spotlight

on seventeenth-century witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, this play shows

how ignorance and good intentions can interweave to destroy lives. The star-

studded cast ratchets the tension to a disturbing level as the town

disintegrates. The young girls playing at witchcraft shriek in irregular

counterpoint to the quiet, terrifying judgments rendered by Reverend Harris

(Michael York), and doubt is ever more audible in the voice of Reverend Hale

(Richard Dreyfuss). Most moving is Stacy Keach as John Proctor, who fights to

salvage some good from the trials that destroy Salem. --AudioFile Magazine

Product Description

A classic of the American Theatre - Arthur Miller's tense, ingeniously multi-

layered drama of principle and paranoia.

The place is Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled

on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their

own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will

have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of

witchcraft and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire

village.

First produced in 1953, at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic

of witch hunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between

individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil. It is

a play that is not only relentlessly suspenseful and vastly moving, but that

compels listeners to gather their hearts and consciences in ways that only the

greatest theater ever can.

A full-cast performance by The Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center featuring

Robert Foxworth, Pamela Payton-Wright, Stuart Pankin, and Jerome Dempsey and

cast.

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. His first theatrical success

occurred in 1947 with All My Sons, which earned him the Drama Critic's Circle

Award. In 1949, Death of a Salesman was given the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama

Critic's Circle Award. The Crucible won a Tony Award four years later. His

other plays included A View from the Bridge, The Price, After the Fall,

Incident at Vichy, The American Clock, Danger Memory, The Ride Down Mt.

Morgan, and Broken Glass.

Product Description

Based on historical people and real events, Arthur Miller's play uses the

destructive power of socially sanctioned violence unleashed by the rumors of

witchcraft as a powerful parable about McCarthyism.

Introduction by Christopher Bigsby

About the Author

Arthur Miller, born in New York City, has been a prominent and influential

playwright for the last half-century. His works include Death of a Salesman,

The Crucible, and All My Sons. He has twice won the New York Drama Critics

Circle Award and in 1949 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Christopher Bigsby is professor of American studies at the University of East

Anglia, in Norwich, England.