The Crucible

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Puritan Salem, Massachusetts is uprooted when a panic surrounding accusations of witchcraft takes over the town. As more people begin to be accused and tried, the community begins to disintegrate as the local minister and a reverend from a nearby town lead a witch-hunt to purge the town of accused witches. Children become orphans, crops go un-harvested and cows roam the streets. The PlayMaker’s Repertory Company production of The Crucible seeks to illustrate how intolerance of other’s, and mass-hysteria can lead to the destruction of a society through use of dramatic elements such as characterization, and conflict, as well as production elements such as set design, costume design, and lighting design. This
Reverend Parris is characterized in this production as a hypocritical pastor who seems to really only want money and notoriety, and as someone who is generally narrow-minded. The opening scene of the play in which Abigail feigns being attacked, and blames it on Tituba elucidates this. Reverend Parris is eager to believe her because it both proves his accusations of witchcraft, and because Tituba is from a different culture, meaning that she of course must be a witch. Abigail Williams is someone who is vengeful, and who is not afraid to throw others under the bus for her own personal benefit. When Abigail accuses Elizabeth of being a witch, it is an attempt to get back at Elizabeth for firing her, and back at John for not continuing his relationship with her. Abigail also blames Tituba for her own immoral deeds such as laughing during prayer, and dancing in the woods while conjuring spirits. Abigail plays right in to the hysterical witch-hunt in the town so that she may gain something from it. Mass-Hysteria and panic can easily be furthered with people who are young, naïve and impressionable. In The Crucible that character is Mary Warren. The one time that Mary is made to face her friends and accuse them in court of lying, she ultimately falls back into the trap of madness by acting and believing that she is under attack by the spirit of John
Though about the Salem Witch trials, it’s message about intolerance and hysteria were just as applicable then, as they were in 1692, and as they are today. The characterization of Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris, and Mary Warren, as well as the conflict between John Proctor, Reverend Parris, Ezekiel Cheever, and Marshall Herrick seek to bring these ideas of intolerance and hysteria to the forefront of the play while the PlayMaker’s production of The Crucible seeks to bring this idea out through a new interpretation of the play, using a mixture of modern, and period costumes, lighting, and set design seeks to demonstrate both intolerance and hysteria, and to suggest that these ideas are neither fresh nor are they solely things of the past. The PlayMaker’s production of The Crucible intolerance and hysteria that Arthur Miller was observing when the play was written in 1952 are just as much alive today as they were