THE CRUCIBLE
July 1994
 

Cumbernauld News - 29^th June 1994 “Youth Theatre’s Challenge”  1 | 2 | Top

This week Cumbernauld Youth Theatre embark on their biggest challenge to date with a production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”. 

Youth Theatre Director Evelyn Wallace reckons the play, which can be seen from Thursday, June 30, to Saturday, July 2, is the most difficult thing the young group have tackled so far.

“The Crucible” is a modern classic, the story of a small community in Massachusetts gradually drawn into hysteria and bloodshed when a girlish prank gets out of hand and leads to a full-blown witch-hunt.

How are the Youth Theatre coping with such strong material?  “They are doing very well,” says Evelyn.  “The language in which the play is written has caused a little bit of difficulty.  It’s Eighteenth century, it’s a dialect and there are a lot of words used in the play, which are unfamiliar.  The phrasing of sentences has added to the problems some people have had in learning lines, but everyone has been working hard and it’s certainly stretching peoples abilities to the full.”

Although set in America, the play will be performed in casts own accents.  “I think the events and themes of the play are universal,” said Evelyn.  “After all, witch trials of the same sort were common in Scotland during the same period.”

Although Miller used “The Crucible” to draw parallels with the hysterical anti-Communism of the McCarthy era in the United States, Evelyn and the Youth Theatre only looked briefly at the periods concerned.  Said Evelyn: “I was more concerned with focussing on the way that rumor and speculation can grow into something very ugly and feed on people’s baser instincts.

“It’s a very serious play and involves some pretty powerful emotions.  It’s demanding stuff, but I am pleased with the way rehearsals have been going.”

Alright, alright I confess.  I confess that Arthur Miller is the most overrated writer in the English language.  I confess that the continuing presence of his “Death of a Salesman” on school reading lists is one of the clearest violations of human rights this century.

And I confess I’ve always had a distaste for the heavy-handedness of “The Crucible”, wherein Miller feels it necessary to repeatedly batter his audience over the head with the parallels between the McCarthyite anti-Communist witchhunts in America in the 50’s and the brutal anti-witch witchhunts in America in the 17^th Century.  The point about destructiveness of the dark side of human nature is well made, but surely it doesn’t have to be made again and again for well over 2 hours? 

It is with considerably more pleasure, then, that I confess that the Youth Theatre’s production of the play had power and class enough to outweigh my own aversion to Miller’s shrill hectoring. 

The sets (by Mike Dorrance and Chris Traquair) were unobtrusive and effective, while Woody Macmillan’s lighting was perfectly judged.  The costumes were also well worthy of praise, especially considering the budget the team have to work with, and Evelyn Wallace’s direction of the young cast was near faultless (the end of act one as the girls began to shriek the names of those they had seen with the devil was particularly impressive).

And the performances…

In an impressive cast, there were some outstanding performers – Pamela Scobbie as Mary Warren and Gary Ivady as Rev Hale spring to mind.  Andrew J. McNeilly’s performance as Rev Parris and Sharon Kennedy’s as Judge Hawthorne were also particularly fine, while Scott Gillian stepped in to play Deputy Governor Danforth with just three days rehearsal – and still managed to carry off the role with conviction.

No one who saw “ the Crucible” can be in any doubt about the star of the show, however.  John Keilty’s performance as John Proctor must surely be one of the best actors (amature or otherwise) to grace Cumbernauld Theatre.

As the good man facing a town gone made with mistrust, he was commanding, dignified and completely natural.  This was not a showy performance; he did not dominate the other actors, but worked perfectly alongside them.  Cumbernauld Youth Theatre would be wise to make plenty of use of his talent in future.

The only down points were a couple of first act fits of the giggles, best put down to nerves.  Otherwise, “The Crucible” was, if you’ll excuse the poor pun, devilishly good.  

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