"The Crucible" at Spring-Ford High School - A Review

I am sure that many of us remember reading Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in high school. To me, I can only fully realize the full effect of a play when it is performed, whether it is by Miller or Shakespeare. The Crucible, a Tony-Award winner in 1953, is always so relevant so matter what year it is performed. It was written during Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee Hearings, for which Miller was called to testify. In a nutshell, it is about gossip and how people turn on each other in a heartbeat. It is almost always considered one of Miller’s two best plays, along with Death of a Salesman.

Directed by Aimee Oblak, with assistance by Ron Logan and student direction by Nicholas Edwards, The Crucible was performed by the Drama Club at this past Friday and Saturday. For a high school to take on a play of this magnitude is not easy. Lines are not the easiest to memorize, as this is 1692 Salem Massachusetts. They didn’t exactly say “Dude” and “Hey” up there then. Under set designer Steve Antrim’s supervision, sets were kept appropriately simple and austere. As I was watching the 21 students in the cast, it was hard to believe that I was at a high school production of this play. Everyone took it exactly to the level of seriousness that it needed, with not a moment’s hesitation in anyone’s lines.

Act One opens on the home of Reverend Parris (Tim Mattiola), where he is praying over the bed of his ill daughter (Brianne Alban). His daughter was in the woods the previous evening with other town girls performing a ritual. The Reverend’s niece, Abigail (Grayce Hoffman), was also in the woods. The other townspeople are very concerned for their own daughters and insist that Parris root out the true cause, which they believe is witchcraft. The audience learns that the play’s hero, John Proctor (Ryan Hagan), had an affair awhile back with Abigail. Abigail decides to accuse Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth (Masynn Gensler), of witchcraft so that she can have John back all to herself.

The remainder of the play is all about the trials, led by Judges Hawthorne (Paul Johnson) and Danforth (Nick Edwards), and executions. Obviously, since this play is set during the Salem Witch Trials, we know that someone (or more than one) will hang. Who will it be?

I found myself thinking that there is not much difference between when rumors spread in 1692 and when they spread in 2011. This is serious subject matter, which, when taken on by a high school (a petri dish of gossip), seems all the more relevant. The Drama Club of Spring-Ford High School should be proud of its performance of The Crucible.