The Crucible

The set design by Michael Sparks is otherworldly, a forest from an imagined time and place with rope branches hanging with ominous portent, and simple benches doing double or triple duty as a bed or table or wall. The set is lit expertly to a design by Kelly McGannon. The emotional temperature of the work is heightened and enhanced by this combination. Sound design by Jordan and Peter Best is subtle.

The casting has been managed masterfully, with strong performances amongst the cast. Mark Bunnett’s Judge Danforth is powerful and his voice chills with conviction. Zoe Priest’s performance of Abigail Williams is a marvellous mix of the innocent and the knowing. Duncan Ley and Lexi Sekuless play John and Elizabeth Proctor with great emotional depth and are two of the highlights of the production.  Tituba is played by Yvonne Webber.

The young girls make a marvellous chorus of hysteria and accusation. Their choreography, facial expressions and tone of voice can be both delightful and chilling, and they work very well together. Geoffrey Borny (Francis Nurse) and Liz Bradley (Rebecca Nurse) show marvellous depth of character as the couple face challenges through the play’s development. Indeed, challenging is the key term for the whole play, which is no walk in the park for the actors.

The melange of accents across the cast is a little confusing and distracting, as are the variety of costumes across time periods.

This is a very good production of a difficult play, and its resonances follow through, past the 1950s McCarthyism to our current worries in the twenty-first century.

Rachel McGrath-Kerr