After a slightly underwhelming opening, OUDS’s production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible just gets better and better.
Set in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, Miller’s play charts the religious and moral struggles of a Puritan society wracked by accusations of witchcraft and compacts with the devil. An increasingly problematic court case ensues, dredging up generations-old rivalries and provoking several fresh conflicts between and even within characters.
Lily Slater’s production, the first student play to ever be performed in the Sheldonian Theatre, is staged with an appropriately bare set, and is excellently cast with authority and energy coming from all the right places. In the hands of Zoe Hare, Goody Putnam’s exclamations in the first act aptly foreshadow the hysteria to come.
The leads are all strong, and in many cases keep something back which enables them to ratchet up the drama at crucial moments later in the play. The actors playing John and Elizabeth Proctor, Thomas Curzon and Rosalind Brody, ably portray their characters’ transformations, while Sam Liu is spot on as the formidably icy and self-righteous Danforth.
It’s Mary Warren (Linnet Kaymer), though, who steals the most scenes. Kaymer plays Mary’s fluctuating states with commitment; she’s equally convincing in creating a set of anxious mannerisms and in conveying Mary’s swelling sense of self-importance as she relays court proceedings to Proctor, complete with amusing imitations of other townspeople.
With a pulpit providing a witness stand, the Sheldonian is an intelligent choice of venue for The Crucible, yet the production doesn’t always use the space to the highest advantage. The cast are inexplicably seated on benches directly behind the stage throughout most of the action, calling to mind spectators at court, but no one sits here during the court scenes. A brief appearance of judges amongst the play’s audience, however, serves to underscore our perhaps inevitable judgement of characters’ choices and actions. On a lighter note, there’s a subtle comedy in the continual presence of the somewhat hapless clerk Ezekiel Cheever scribbling away in these scenes – he couldn’t possibly get all of the often enraged and fast-paced dialogue down!
Impressive performances and fine-tuned choreography in the infamously difficult yellow bird scene make for a poised production, and an enjoyable one too.