The Crucible
Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Pamela Moller Kareman
ArcLight Theatre
152 West 71st Street
212-352-3101
Review by Christopher Zara
Anyone who believes that the difference between paranoia and perceptiveness is a
matter of mere semantics should not miss The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s history
lesson on the Puritanical pedigree of American justice and its ever-irrational
tendencies. In the capable hands of the Schoolhouse Theater and Mare Nostrum
Elements, the off-Broadway revival of Miller’s classic retains its intended
punch, delivering a brassy and uncompromising account of the infamous witch
trials that tore through colonial Massachusetts.
The year is 1692, and the village of Salem has
fallen prey to a mysterious plague, one that inflicts its victims with a
dementia so severe it makes troubled songstress Amy Winehouse look like the
model of lucidity. Among those infected by the sudden outbreak is Betty Parris
(Lauren Currie Lewis), the young daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris (Keith
Barber). Desperate to save his ailing child, Samuel enlists the services of John
Hale (Kevin Albert), an authority on all things supernatural. Hale begins to
suspect that the girl’s malady may be the result of witchcraft, and it isn’t
long before word of his suspicion spreads, causing widespread panic throughout
the province. Meanwhile, local farmer John Proctor and his wife, Elizabeth
(Simon MacLean and Sarah Bennett), seem to be the only two villagers with enough
sense to dismiss the whole idea of witches as pure nonsense. But when Elizabeth
herself is fingered as a dabbler in the black arts, the Proctors are
subsequently hauled of to jail — and nothing short of a full confession will
save them from a public hanging.
The Crucible is Miller’s most-performed play, and an easy one to suffocate under
a blanket of self-satisfied execution. But the Schoolhouse Theater avoids this
pitfall with stellar performances and a brisk pace. Director Pamela Moller
Kareman never lets us blink as her cast members unleash their deluge of
evangelical tirades, warning of the devil’s wily ways and the dangers of not
knowing our Commandments. The actors’ chilling authenticity rips us back to a
time when America was lousy with unchecked ignorance. It’s a fierce and
frustrating depiction: extreme enough to show us how far we’ve come, yet
familiar enough to remind us how little we’ve changed. MacLean and Bennett share
a brilliant chemistry as John and Elizabeth Proctor, who serve as the story’s
rational and sympathetic core.
Arthur Miller first penned The Crucible in 1953 at the height of the Red Scare.
His intent, of course, was to use the witch trials as a metaphor for
McCarthyism, but more than half a century later his message subsists — whether
it’s in President Bush’s wiretapping fiasco or Mayor Bloomberg’s scheme to
catalog the DNA of anyone unfortunate enough to be arrested in New York City.
Paranoia is alive and well, and the Schoolhouse Theater has unmasked it with
great perceptiveness.
(c)
2008 Show Business Weekly
