19:30, Thu 19th – Sat 21st February 2015 at Fitzwilliam College Auditorium
Lent Week 5

Arthur Miller’s, ‘The Crucible’, is gripping, tense and, if done well, leaves audiences disturbed. Our aim can be summed up in the words of Steinbeck; “I’ve done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied.” The plot is always taut, moving from the frenzy of adolescent girls crying witchcraft, caught up in the hysteria that grips Salem, to the lust of Abigail for Proctor which turns to a shocking malevolence, to the pure agony of Elizabeth and Proctor when they must give each other up. All the while, the audience looks on, privy to the backhand plots, but frustratingly unable to intervene.

Taking place during the witch trials of Salem in the 17th century, the plot thickens as what starts as innocent dancing in the woods evolves into suspicions of witchcraft, and finally a full-on frenzy of people being sentenced with the crime of witchcraft and being doomed to hang left and right. It makes the characters face the ultimate questions of what is deceit and what is reality, and what is virtue and what is sin. We intend to bring this production new life and illustrate the universality of its themes by drawing upon effects from the epic-theatre movement and strong symbolism.