Top production left audience stunned Review:‘The Crucible’at Pitlochry FestivalTheatre
drama of the courtroom to life with uncomfortable, almost unbearable tension.
Domestic situations like the flickering out of intimacy in Elizabeth and John Proctor’s now troubled marriage were handled with perfect poise.
Barbara Hockaday had a small but perfectly formed part as the saint-like Rebecca Nurse. She acted old age and piety to perfection.
Marc Small as Rev Hale took us through a man’s ethical and moral journey. His initial conviction about the state of affairs he encounters as a newcomer was gradually uprooted and he was forced, too late, to alter his outlook as events spiralled way beyond his control.
It was a breathless first half and most of the audience needed to walk round the block in the interval to let go of such well-sustained suspense and tension.
Miller’s script was a coral reef of human situations, with every variety of fish from small fry to shark, benign slow-moving giants to unpredictable colour-changing creatures who will do anything to evade capture.
Fiona Wood as Abigail Williams was an example of the last one: a young woman who is so compromised (she was touched and taken by married father John Proctor while serving as a maid in his household the previous summer) that her flight from the truth costs lives in the process of her public Harry Long as John Proctor and Fiona Wood as Abigail Williams denial.
The slow-moving giant that comes to mind is Alexander Bean as the faultlessly honest Giles Corey, who dies crushed under the weight of rocks, rather than answer an unjust charge. Don’t go to see ‘The Crucible’ if you can’t handle conflict and heartbreak.
The matters in hand are so serious
and eternally relevant, but to witness the terrible wastage of life that results from a comparably minor mischief is to grow in understanding of humanity.
By the end, the PFT audience almost staggered out to their cars, deeply affected by what had happened.
Life-enriching drama at its best.