The Crucible - The Crucible

[voyagerweb]

Mar 7, 2024 15:59:44 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

Is that the actual set behind, with the classroom chairs and mic stands?

Wardrobe will have the whole run off by the looks of all that linen. No point in pressing that for it to be creased again five minutes later.

Yes that’s the ‘set’

[BurlyBeaR]

Just seen the production photos. I feel a bit more encouraged actually. It looks very atmospheric.

Using the Crucible theatre’s CRUCIBLE logo as part of the set is a bold move.

[ceebee]

Mar 7, 2024 19:10:17 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

Just seen the production photos. I feel a bit more encouraged actually. It looks very atmospheric.

Using the Crucible theatre’s CRUCIBLE logo as part of the set is a bold move.

Yes, the photos look good. Plus I think Rose Shalloo is an excellent actress - I could be tempted to jump on a train to see this.

[BurlyBeaR]

Discounted ticket for this Wednesday’s matinee on the Noticeboard.

[Steve]

Thought this was great.

Less about the infectiousness of hysteria, more about the insidiousness and effectiveness of repeating lies over and over, which feels like much of modern politics.

The stripped back vibe was creepy.

Sargon Yelda, Laura Pyper, Rose Shalloo and Anoushka Lucas are all excellent.

Some spoilers follow. . .

I never realised how creepy it is for people to converse underneath a table. But when its the only real set, and when actors are crawling there, and when there's a sinister tone, and the lighting dims, I felt my goosebumps raising.

But these atmospherics are just mood setters really, as the actual substance of the staging is to have the liars simply boldly stride to the microphones and lie blatantly again and again and again.

This is different from the Old Vic and National Productions, for example, where the "witches" were racing around like scary wolf packs hunting prey.

Here the "witches" don't form mobs as such, they just separate out and take to spaced out microphones and start boldfacedly lying. It's less viscerally frightening, more intellectually frightening.

Where this production really excels is in bringing out the slow-build of Arthur Miller's script, whereby we complacent frogs really aren't aware the water around us is boiling until its all too late.

Sargon Yelda, in particular, is SO good at making the Reverend Paris seem utterly civilised and reasonable for the longest time, and then SO good at showing how his self interest is served by willingly succumbing to the poisonous lies on repeat. He feels like a prototype of your modern self-interested person selling out democracy by embracing lies, without thinking through where this will all end.

Laura Pyper invests such intelligent and sharp-witted, yet complacent, indignance in her two characters' resistance to all the lies around her, that its actually quite shocking when she starts to drown in them.

And as the principal liar, Abigail Williams, Rose Shalloo becomes ever increasingly assertive and perversely thrilled and reveling in the sound and power of her own words.

And as the tragically honourable Elizabeth Proctor, Anoushka Lucas is especially poignant and sensitive in the eye of the storm.

This take on Miller's play really brings out the overwhelmingly destructive snowballing effect of self-interest and lies. And by being so stripped back, it reveals how brilliant a piece of slow-building drama the writing is.

4 stars from me.

[backstage]

Would also agree with 4 stars. Some of the directing choices didn’t work for me (the milk, the microphones don’t add enough for when they clearly just get in the way) but carried by strong performances and the runtime just flew by.

[TallPaul]

Steve, do you regularly travel north to see productions at the world-famous Crucible Theatre?

[Steve]

Mar 25, 2024 13:50:49 GMT TallPaul said:

Steve, do you regularly travel north to see productions at the world-famous Crucible Theatre?

No. It feels like only yesterday, but before this one, the last production I saw at the Crucible was "The Nap" in 2016, directed by Richard Wilson and starring Jack O'Connell.

theatreboard.co.uk/thread/477/nap-jack-oconnell

That was only shortly after Theatreboard opened to provide a lifeline to continue chatting about theatre after Whatonstage closed down their message board.

Time flies. I might get another couple of visits in before I die if I'm lucky lol.