By Andy Brooks
Back
in the 17th century a wave of hysteria swept a small town in what
was then the English colony of Massachusetts in New England. Based on the
accusations of children, the largely Puritan settlers of Salem started an
enquiry that turned into a frenzied witch-hunt that was used to settle old
scores between rival factions in the town. Twenty people, 14 of them women,
were executed and five others, including two infants, died in prison before the
whole process was halted by broader public opinion.
Salem became such a by-word for superstition,
bigotry and persecution that it inspired Arthur Miller to write this play
during the notorious anti-communist “witch-hunts” of the early 1950s led by
Senator Joseph McCarthy and the notorious House of Un-American Activities
Committee.
The Crucible is a dramatic interpretation of the Salem witch trials of 1692
but it is clearly an analogy of McCarthyism, which hounded communists, and those
whom the rabid Senator deemed to be ‘fellow-travellers’, out of their jobs.
Those that refused to become turncoat informers were often forced to go into
voluntary exile. Some were even jailed on trumped charges of conspiracy,
subversion or being agents of the Soviet Union.
Miller himself said that the Crucible was “by far my most frequently
produced play, both abroad and at home. Its meaning is somewhat different in
different places and moments. I can almost tell what the political situation in
a country is when the play is suddenly a hit there – it is either a warning of
tyranny on the way or a reminder of tyranny just past.”
The current production by the Sell A Door
Theatre Company and the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch began in February at the
Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch, another part of Essex now in Greater London, and
will now tour the country.
It stars Charlie Condou, best known for
playing Marcus Dent in Coronation Street,
as the witch-hunting Reverend Hale, and Victoria Yeates of BBC’s Call the Midwife fame. It is directed
by the Queen’s Theatre’s Artistic Director, Douglas Rintoul.
It’s currently on in Dartford and moves to
Cheltenham next week. Check out the full details of the Crucible UK Tour on the
web to see if it’s coming anywhere near you. It’s well worth a visit.
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