"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller.

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre.

Written in 1953 and based on the Salem Witch trials of Massachusettes between 1692 and 1693. In a small tight-knit community, personal grievances clash with lust and superstition, fuelling widespread hysteria. Miller’s classic story attacks the evils of mindless persecution and the power of false accusations.

The play isn’t wholly about supernatural happenings that may, or may not have happened in this period of history, but also about human manipulation of the mind of their fellow man.

Making someone believe in something non fact based can be a very dangerous thing, which is also why there are so many comparisons with the political world since and currently. The power of the mind is a dangerous thing!

It’s also about power, lust, respect and love as well as unfounded belief; an intoxicating blend. Fact is swirled with fiction and it’s well documented that Miller did his research well before writing this literary classic, which still stands up with the best of today’s theatrical works.

This has always been one of my favourite plays; it is in my mind a literary classic, but I will state now, before I go on, that I have one regret about tonight's production.

David Field is John Proctor, the play's tragic hero. Honest, upright, and blunt-spoken, Proctor is a good man, but one with a secret, fatal flaw. His lust for Abigail Williams led to their affair (which occurs before the play begins), and created Abigail’s jealousy of his wife, Elizabeth, which sets the entire witch hysteria in motion. You could not have wrung more passion out of David if you'd have put him through a mangle, and his passion as Proctor is completely insane and off the scale.

 

Kareena Sims plays Elizabeth Proctor, faithful in every sense of the word to husband John, as well as deeply caring and sensitive, if still hurting from what has happened to her. John had an affair with Abigail when she was a servant in the Proctors’ household. That sereneness, and love for John is brought out perfectly

 

Francesca Short is Abigail Williams, the villain of the play, more so than Parris or Danforth: she tells lies, manipulates her friends and the entire town, and eventually sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths. Throughout the hysteria, Abigail’s motivations never seem more complex than simple jealousy and a desire to have revenge on Elizabeth Proctor. 

 

Jack Leo is Rev. Parris, the minister of Salem’s church. He is a paranoid, power-hungry, but self-pitying figure. Many of the Salem townsfolk, especially John Proctor, dislike him, and Parris is very concerned with building his position in the community.

 

Fred Baker is Rev. John Hale,  a young minister reputed to be an expert on witchcraft, is called in to Salem to examine Parris’s daughter Betty. Hale is a committed Christian and hater of witchcraft. His arrival sets the hysteria in motion, although he later regrets his actions and attempts to save the lives of those accused.

 

Joe Foster plays Judge Hathorne, a judge who presides, along with Danforth, over the witch trials.

 

Nik Hedges is Dep. Gov. Danforth, the deputy governor of Massachusetts and the presiding judge at the witch trials. Honest and scrupulous, at least in his own mind, Danforth is convinced that he is doing right in rooting out witchcraft. 

Chloe Davie is Betty Parris, Reverend Parris’s ten-year-old daughter who falls into a strange stupor after Parris catches her and the other girls dancing in the forest with Tituba. Her illness and that of Ruth Putnam fuel the first rumors of witchcraft.

Maureen Nwabueze is Tituba. Reverend Parris’s Barbadian slave. We first see this quite scary character in the first scene where Abigail's friends and Tituba are in the forest and Tituba performs a voodoo ritual.

 

Jane Pyke plays Rebecca Nurse. Rebecca is a wise, sensible, and upright woman, held in tremendous regard by most of the Salem community. However, she falls victim to hysteria when the Putnams accuse her of witchcraft and she refuses to confess. 

David Dunford plays Francis Nurse. Nurse is an aged but wealthy, influential man in Salem. He is well respected by most people in Salem, but he is an enemy of Thomas Putnam and his wife. 

Adam Worton is Thomas Putnam. Putnam uses the witch trials to increase his own wealth by accusing people of witchcraft and then buying up their land. 

Emma Rayner plays Anne Putnam, a bitter, grief-stricken woman who has lost seven children in infancy and is convinced they were murdered by supernatural means. As the wife of Thomas Putnam, she is a key figure in the Salem witch trials, using her grief and jealousy to accuse others, notably Rebecca Nurse, contributing to the town's hysteria and paranoia. 

Eden Silk plays Mary Warren, the servant in the Proctor household and a member of Abigail’s group of girls. She is a timid girl, easily influenced by those around her, who tried unsuccessfully to expose the hoax. 

Ally Saunders is Mercy Lewis, one of the girls in Abigail's group.

 

Charlotte Thomas plays Susannah Walcott. Susannah is a young, nervous and frightened member of Abigail’s group.

 

Max Bromley returns to the Lace Market stage as Giles Corey, an elderly but feisty farmer in Salem, famous for his tendency to file lawsuits. Giles’s wife, Martha, is accused of witchcraft, and he himself is eventually held in contempt of court and dies an uncomfortable death due to sticking to his guns.

 

Joe Downing plays Marshall Herrick. There's not an awful lot of comedy in this play, but Joe, as Herrick, brought the light relief.

 

Tom Pluse is Ezekiel Cheever, a clerk of the court. Cheever takes testimonies, serves warrants, arrests people who are accused, and transports people to jail.

• Directed by Matthew Huntbach, assisted by Charlotte Thomas there was absolutely nothing more that Matt and Charlotte could have done to retain that "classic" label for this production. The cast really put you through the emotional wringer, especially David Field, and especially in the second act. That could be said though of all the actors on stage The final scenes with Proctor and his wife are absolutely gut wrenching. The "exorcism" scene with Abigail, Susannah and Mercy could not have been more unnerving, and especially when Mary Warren was dragged into the scene. An incredible ensemble piece of character acting from all.

  

  
  
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• Lighting Design and Operation is by Philip Hogarth. Keeping the majority of the lighting down to shadows and low lighting helped to promote the doom and darkness of the story and the acting.
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• Sound Designer and Operator is Darren Coxon. The creeping menace of a soundtrack worked very well at intensifying the supernatural elements of the storyline.
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• Stage Managed by Jae Marriott, assisted by Alex Hayball. With such a large cast, probably one of the largest that I have seen on the Lace Market Theatre stage for a very long time. Entrances and exits made from and around the wooden beams at the back of the stage, giving that feeling of a wooded area, as well as a corridor style entrance/exit for the actors. 

Set Design is by Guy Evans and is rather different to any that I've seen. A wooden, circular stage with the imposing wooden uprights towards the back giving that effect of the woods may look simple but is incredibly effective to look at.

The props are brilliant with nothing omitted from what you'd imagine a household from the 1600s to have, and so many of them as well.

Costumes by the Warddrobe Team of Sue Drew and the Team. Straight away you are immediately transported to the 17^th Century with every costume for every actor being perfect to place the actors and the scenes historically.

I've seen a few productions of this Arthur Miller classic over the years but this has to be the best production that I have seen. The raw power and energy from the stage is like being hit by an emotional fireball, leaving you at times quite breathless, and I did mention that there was just one regret with the production, and that was that I didn't stand up at the end because this is one show that deserves a standing ovation, and I can't remember the last time that a standing ovation was seen at the Lace Market... maybe I need to stand up and start that trend again.

If you can get a ticket for this production, get one as soon as you can because you will not see a production with as much stage presence and passion as this one.

"The Cruicible" is at the Nottingham Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 29 November.

Photography by Grace Eden Photography.