Last Updated on May 25, 2025
Miller’s Modern Classic, The Crucible, Resonates with a Contemporary Audience
4.0 out of 5.0 starsBetter known for staging the works of Shakespeare, last night the Globe Theatre transported us to colonial Massachusetts for Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Set during the Salem witch trials of 1692, during the Salem witch trials of 1692, Miller’s allegorical play is a thinly veiled critique of McCarthy-era America, a period of anti-communist hysteria, with a chilling blend of political fear, cultural censorship, and systemic injustice.
Showing for the first time at The Globe, The Crucible serves as a stark reminder of how fear and suspicion can tear society apart, inviting us to confront uncomfortable questions about truth, power, and the cost of integrity. The simple staging, using every inch of the stage, balcony and spilling out into the groundlings at times, carried the audience to New England with actors clad in modest and simple Puritan costumes. A classic production.
The play begins in a bedroom in the house of Reverend Samuel Parris, where his daughter, Betty Parris, lies inert and unresponsive. The local community is already whispering that witchcraft may be the cause of her strange condition. While the Reverend Parris is concerned for his daughter, it’s clear from the start that his fear of a scandal drives much of the initial tension. When he reveals that he discovered his daughter dancing in the woods the night before with a group of friends, the suspicions of others present are raised. Tituba, Parris’s slave from Barbados, is called and, under intense questioning, the threat of hanging, confesses to communicating with the devil, and starts the avalanche of accusations by suggesting that satan himself said that Parris should be killed, accusing Goody Good (one of the older women).
At that point, the other young girls present start to accuse various older women of the town. The ring leader, Abigail Williams, turns out to have had an affair with John Proctor, one of the men who tries to expose the falsehood, providing her with leverage to blackmail him and then to turn the town against him.
It is the tension between Proctor and his wife that lifts this production. Trapped by his earlier affair with Abigail, Proctor is accused of consorting with the devil himself and is initially tempted to confess and save his own life. But when he realises that the required confession isn’t a demand for truth but rather a way for the court to justify the executions and maintain the legitimacy of the trials, for a public compliance that can be posted to validate the witch hunt, he tears up the document.
The cast delivers a compelling ensemble performance, with standout emotional intensity between Gavin Drea’s John Proctor and Phoebe Price’s Elizabeth, capturing the heart of The Crucible’s tragic core. Hannah Saxby brings a sharp edge to Abigail, portraying her as both naïve and domineering, while Bethany Wooding’s Elizabeth Warren is convincingly portrayed as a desperate follower eager for acceptance.
Steve Furst embodies Reverend Parris with a blend of weakness and materialism, in stark contrast to Jo Stone-Fewings’ Reverend Hale, who offers a more nuanced performance as a man increasingly troubled by the weight of his convictions. Gareth Snook rounds out the cast with a chilling portrayal of Deputy Governor Danforth, a rigid and authoritarian figure unwavering in his blind adherence to doctrine.
Excellent direction from Director Ola Ince, together with a convincing New England staging from Amelia Jane Hankin and a fabulous cast, makes this production of The Crucible compelling. At a time of political turbulence when freedom of speech once again seems not to be a given, it’s a work which has a particular resonance.
Shakespeare’s Globe,
21 New Globe Walk
Bankside
London SE1 9DT
The Crucible is showing from 23 May to 12 July 2025
Looking for something different? We recommend Romeo and Juliet, also currently showing at the Globe Theatre
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