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Review: The Crucible (November 1989)
Society excells in Crucible
A wave of despair swept through Puritan Salem Village in the year 1692 when the flimsy evidence of hysterical girls brought the noose to many necks.
A wave of admiration swept through the Library Theatre, Eastbourne on Thursday when the Bexhill Amateur Theatircal Society presented Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
It is by no means an easy play. Parallels have been drawn between this village witch-hunt and the notorious McCarthy hearings against Communist sympathisers.
But the play touches firmly on the human values.And the large cast, without exception, were all superb, playing their roles with conviction and thought. The imaginative direction by Rob Kay was excellent.
The play focuses on the Proctor family.
Sally Clifford played the wife, Elizabeth, and turned her role as the quietly devoted woman into a towering pwerformance. John Proctor was played by Lawrie Rhodes, and vast demands were made on him. John has faults, but he is a good man. he lives life bluntly, deserting the church as he clashes with Reverend Samuel Parris.
Mark Allen played the Rev Parris, who starts the rumours of witches when he finds his daughter and neice, Abigail, played by Sophie Bradbury, dancing late at night.
To cover their guilt, Abigail and her friends point the finger at women in the village. Abigail loves John Proctor and claims Elizabeth is a witch so she can have John for herself, but his fury and despair only drive him to bring a death sentence upon himself.
The Reverand John Hale, played sensitively by Dominic Campbell, sees the trials for the frauds they are when he accepts that John is a true and honest man.
By the ending of the play he is pleading with John to sign a declaration of his guilt, save his life and stop the madness. John goes to the gibbet, however, losing his life but saving his soul.
- Lindsay Iles, Eastbourne Herald
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