The Crucible On Screen Review: Epic, Emotional and Utterly Compelling

This stirring and unsettling production of one of Arthur Miller’s most prominent plays is directed by acclaimed playwright and director Yaël Farber, who over the years has won numerous national and international awards for her work and it’s not hard to see why. The production was staged earlier this year at The Old Vic in London, which performed to sold out audiences over a 12 week run, garnering the attention of critics around the world and it deservingly racked up 5 star reviews.

The Crucible was staged in-the-round and one may make think it could make it all the more difficult to capture the emotions, gestures and key moments of the play, but this was not the case in this production. Delamere leaves no stone unturned and every shot is a golden moment, even down to the wide camera angles where we see the expanded, fraught eyes of the audience who are being pulled deeply into this dark play, literally and metaphorically.

The extraordinary production created under the watchful eye and guidance of Farber beautifully preserves the integrity of Miller’s language and provides gripping action and immersion in a foreboding story of witchcraft, lust and superstition set in a small Puritan community in Salem, Massachusetts, where people are living in a suffocating world of gossip, hearsay and personal grievances. In the midst of the infamous Salem witch trials, paranoia and superstition is at an all-time high, fuelling mass hysteria in the town as false accusations of witchcraft fly.

Panic and fear set the tone in the first-act in Reverend Parris’s bedroom, as members of the community accusingly eyeball each other and are quick to denounce their neighbours as witches in frenzied suspicion.  At the centre of the drama is John Proctor (Richard Armitage) who has had regrettable relations with ex-lover, 17-year-old Abigail (Samantha Colley). He now finds that his brief encounter with her has come back to haunt him and with devastating repercussions for himself, his wronged wife (Anna Madeley) and the rest of the community in Salem.

The portrayal of the young girls of Salem is enticing, hypnotic and at times almost unbearably haunting as their eyes roll, their heads sway backwards and forwards with dramatic rigour and their screams pierce the toughest of eardrums. Samantha Colley as the young Abigail Williams stands out amongst a solid, young cast and her cold and calculated persona is effortlessly displayed. 

Farber’s dramatic rendering of the Salem witch hunts are a stunning examination of repression, hysteria, betrayal and guilt all shown in a united, complicated coherence. The staging of the production is dark largely throughout, which is perfectly entwining with the mood and as only a few lights glimmer at any given moment the audience feel as though they are indeed sat around a bubbling cauldron waiting for the predictable horrors to come out of the smoke. The bleakness of the subject matter is most definitely reflected in the lighting, which has not been lost on camera. The poignant staging is aptly combined with the eerie and effective music of Richard Hammarton. It’s atmospheric in flavour, but does not deter the attention away from the story.

The Crucible rapidly whisks the audience through it’s 3 hours and 30 minutes on stage and even the on screen play includes a 15-minute interval – and the audience certainly need it. Act II ends on a dark and sombre note and things continue to spiral even more tragically out of control in Act III and it is something which viewers certainly need to prepare themselves for.

Digital Theatre beautifully captures the dramatic tension and depression in Act III as the powers that be wish to vilify John Proctor. Throughout the performance the acting is extraordinary, but it is in the final act that we witness the cast offer more than is humanly possible. 

Anna Madeley is excellent as Proctor’s betrayed accusatory wife, who through her experiences has become almost stone-like in emotion. Jack Ellis is equally enthralling as the ferocious, stubborn judge leading the corruption of the court, whilst Adrian Schiller’s cleric is the sane, voice of reason that is ignored within this ravaged community hellbent on persecution.   

Then of course there is Richard Armitage who completely embodies his role as John Proctor both mentally, emotionally and physically, as we watch the once strong man physically shrink in front of our eyes into a blundering, broken individual. A transformation which is harrowing, unjust and calamitous. Looking completely spent, we watch as Armitage’s Proctor fights against the sense that he has been irrevocably tainted by his affair with Abigail and all the lies and deceit flying around Salem. His outcome is soaringly heroic and terribly tragic, as he needs to feel capable of honourable sacrifice instead of signing a false confession.

In one of the most heart-rending scenes, sniffles around the cinema could be heard (as they were at The Old Vic performance I attended), as Armitage delivers perhaps the most memorable words from the irredeemable Proctor,who refuses to give away his final piece of self-worth: his name. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”

There are not enough superlatives worthy enough to even begin to describe how Armitage delivers the performance of a lifetime and his final scene with Anna Madeley is as exquisite as it is tragic. In fact, each cast member delivered stunning performances and as a whole they certainly brought out the best in each other to produce stellar deliveries of the most highest standards.

The emotions and toil the cast put themselves through each day throughout the production is immense and certainly appreciated by the audience. Never I have attended a screening of a theatre performance in a cinema where the whole room was silently up on their feet quick to applaud what they have seen, accompanied by muffled sniffles and stilted whimpers, such is the effect this production has on the viewer – and thankfully not just me.

Farber’s thoughtful fingerprints were everywhere and essential for the success of the play. Now taken onto the big screen and with the possibility of downloading the performance in the future, the production is now ensured to be a beautiful, everlasting tribute to one of the great playwrights of our time through the emergence of theatre and film.

It is simply an unforgettable production which is stirring right through to the very core. It is utterly deserving of its six nominations in the impending WhatsOnStage Awards.  

The Crucible is an achievement that all involved should be proud of until the end of their days, as this production will certainly remain with me until the end of mine.