Broadway Theater Review: The Crucible

Saoirse Ronan as Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Teeter as Betty Parriss, Ashlei Sharp Chestnut as Susanna Walcott, Erin Wilhelmi as Mercy Lewis and Ben Whishaw as John Proctor. Photo: Jan Versweyveld

Spellbinding Crucible Magically Conjures Contemporary Hatred 

By Lauren Yarger
Some people, fueled by hatred, tell lies about others, threatening their livelihood and perhaps even their lives. 

A story ripped from today’s headlines about racial tension in Ferguson, MO, terrorist threats amidst refugees crossing borders or Christians refusing to obey laws that violate their beliefs?

No – it’s the plot of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible about hysteria during the Salem witch trials getting a spellbinding revival directed by Ivo Van Hove on Broadway. The message could apply to any of those more contemporary issues filling our culture with hate, however, so fresh and raw is the presentation.

Award-winning film actress Saoirse Ronan is a chilling Abigail Williams, a young girl who seeks revenge on John Proctor (Ben Whishaw) who, guilt-ridden after succumbing to her seduction, allows his godly wife, Elizabeth (Sophie Okonedo) , to turn the servant girl out of their home when she suspects something might be going on.

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Abigail enlists the help of other young girls, who may or may not have joined her in practicing some witchcraft. Betty Parris (Elizabeth Teeter) has been in a trance since the girls met and apparently danced naked in the woods, much to the horror of The Rev. Samuel Parris (Jason Butler Harner). Parris askes the Rev John Hale (Bill Camp) to come investigate.

In the ensuing inquiry and trials which have scores arrested and on trial for their lives, the girls stick together in their story which implicates innocent townsfolk in witchcraft: Tituba (Jenny Jules), Rebecca Nurse (Brenda Wehle) and even elderly Giles Corey (Jim Norton). The madness if fueled when people like the Putnams (Thomas Jay Ryand and Tina Benko) start to wonder if losing many children at young ages might have been due to witchcraft and when Abigail refuses to stop her persecution and the other girls are too frightened to speak against her.

One girl, the Proctors’ new maid, Mary Warren (Tavi Gevinson), tells the truth, but with disastrous results. After all, what does the truth matter when society has decided what you must think and say or lose your life?

The brilliant direction includes setting the play in a school room (designed by Jan Versweyveld, who also designs the lighting) and dressing the girls in school uniforms (Costume Design is by Wojciech Dziedzic). The result is that we see a tale taking place in late 17^th-century Salem, but which could be happening today. This, of course, was Miller’s intent, as the play was written in response to the anti-Communism hearings being conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

The contemporary connection is so compelling that the pointing of a finger and screaming the word “witch” can be applied today as people point and scream “Christian!” or “Racist!”  You either get on board with politically correct policies or find yourself ruined – and little care is given to the motivation of those doing the accusing.

Fascinating in their modern application also, are messages about the church. There are comments about people staying away from church because God is hardly mentioned there (a nod toward today’s churches who opt for popularity over preaching the Gospel). The 10 commandments are written on the blackboard, then obliterated as other things are written over them  Video Design by Tal Yarden, in a nod to rewriting scripture when we don’t like what it says – and the silence required about it in our schools).

We have a sheriff of sorts, Ezekiel Cheever (Michael Braun), and Deputy Governor Danforth (Ciaran Hinds) who don’t necessarily agree with what is happening around them, but say nothing because they are just doing their jobs (and don’t want to lose them – remind you of any of today’s politicians?)

The worst offenders are Judge Hawthorne (Teagle F. Bougere) who won’t listen to any version of the truth except the one he wants to hear and Hale, who realizes too late what is happening and then, because he didn’t do what is right in the first place, is impotent.

Though I have seen other versions of The Crucible and thought them good and timely, never before have I been blown out of my seat by the fright of seeing modern events depicted in such a dark and cunning way. The suggestion later, in very dramatic special-effect that devil worship might just behind all of this is particularly chilling and the Original Score by Philip Glass seals the feeling.

Van Hove is my go-to director now for exciting theater (he also made A View From the Bridge more compelling than I ever have seen it earlier this season.)

The Crucible casts its spell through July 17 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 West 48th St., NYC. Performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm; Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Wednesday and Saturday at 2 pm; Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are $42-$149: thecrucibleonbroadway.com; (877) 250-2929.

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