The Crucible

The Crucible is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It was initially called "The Chronicles of Sarah Good". It is a haunting play reflecting on McCarthyism and a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. It was first performed at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Miller felt that this production was too stylized and cold and the reviews for it were largely hostile (although The New York Times noted "a powerful play [in a] driving performance"). Nonetheless, the production won the 1953 "Best Play" Tony Award. A year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic. It is a central work in the canon of American drama.

PACT, Patrick Mynhardt, Marius Weyers, Michael McCabe, Aletta Bezuidenhout and Michele Maxwell in 1975.

First South African production by *** in 19**. Also done Upstairs Theatre at the Market Theatre in 1976. [??Translated into Afrikaans as Die Hekse van Salem by ** and first produced by ** in 19**. ]

Presented by University Theatre Stellenbsoch in the H.B. Thom Theatre in September 1983, adapted and directed by Noël Roos, starring Gustav Geldenhuys, Isadora Verwey, Antoinette Pienaar, Albert Maritz, Robert Finlayson, Neels Engelbrecht and others.

A Herschel School production, directed by Dawn McClurg, was performed in the Baxter Studio in 1986.

Presented by the Market Theatre at the National Arts Festival, 1996, directed by Lara Foot Newton. Set designer Cathy Henegan, costume designer Sue Steele, lighting designer Richard Barnes, accent coach Dorothy-Ann Gould. The cast: Marcel van Heerden, Graham Hopkins, Frantz Dobrowsky, Megan Willson, Mike Gritten, Thembi Mtshali, Alan T. Marks, Norman Coombes, Bella Mariani, Yael Farber, Amanda Lane, Ken Marshall.

In 1999 Blaise Koch, assisted by Samantha Pienaar, directed students of the University of Stellenbosch Drama Department for a performance of this play at the H.B. Thom Theatre. Designs by Kobus Rossouw. Members of the cast were, among others, Neels van Jaarsveld, André Weideman, Floyed de Vaal, Jenny Stead.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible

National Arts Festival programme, 1996.

UTS theatre programme

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