Season 54 Play 6 – The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Directed by
Cast
Reverend Samuel Parris – lan S. Wilkinson
Tituba – Pauline Warin
Abigail Williams – I. Lila Palmer
Susanna Wallcot – Sarah Jordan
Mrs. Ann Putnam – Elizabeth Poynter
Thomas Putnam – David Poole
Mercy Lewis – Felicity Theobald
Mary Warren – Charlotte Woodman
John Proctor – Stephen C. Brown
Rebecca Nurse – Valerie Jenkins
Giles Corey – Graeme Holbrough
Reverend John Hale – Phil Holbrough
Mrs. Elizabeth Proctor – Julia Wilson
Francis Nurse – Peter Berry
Ezekiel Cheever – Mike Leach
Judge Hathorne – C. E. Peter Walker
Deputy Governor Danforth – Peter Stansfield
Sarah Good – Joan Holbrough
Marshal Herrick – Gavin Lambert
Hopkins – Julian Cooper
Alice Bellows – Stephanie Burton
Miriam Sibber – Ella Lewis
Hannah Barrow – Natalie Dyson
Synopsis
Arthur Miller’s play draws parallels between the 1692 Salem witch-hunt and the McCarthyism that gripped America in the 1950s and depicts a society in which evil is unleashed in mindless persecution of minority groups, driven through suspicion, malice and fear. The tragedy is born out of a childish prank in the woods, but escalates into self-sanctified persecution and murder of innocent people.
Directors Notes
This powerful play is based on vicious witch-hunts in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Many innocent people were executed. Arthur Miller wrote THE CRUCIBLE as a chilling condemnation of the McCarthy witch-hunts in the 1950s in which the infamous senator sought to unearth communists especially in the worlds of art and entertainment. He did all this in an insane atmosphere of betrayal, professional revenge and spiteful comeuppance. Miller himself says, “This play is not a history”. It is as pertinent today as it was in the 50s when it was first produced. Our twenty-first century world is rife with fierce hatreds, accusations, guilt and vice. This play exposes the cruel effects of misapplied evidence, false testimony, spurious interpretations, violent misunderstandings and malicious manipulations.
What a privilege it is to direct it on the BLT stage.
