BWW Reviews: THE CRUCIBLE Heats up Hartford Stage Through October 6

The Crucible
by Arthur Miller
Directed by Gordon Edelstein
at Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford through October 6
www.hartfordstage.org

Hartford Stage ushers in its 48th season, the first under new Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, with Arthur Miller's searing drama The Crucible. Selected by outgoing Artistic Director Michael Wilson and directed by Long Wharf Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein, the production has a lot riding on its shoulders. Freighted with much expectation, the drama could scarcely cry out for "more weight," to quote one unfortunate resident of Salem, Massachusetts. So how does Hartford Stage's Crucible fare with such a burden? Despite some dubious design choices, the production retains much of the potency of Miller's masterpiece and reminds us that sensationalized hysteria is still very much alive in modern America.

Premiered in 1953, Miller's scorching play was an allegorical assault on Senator Joseph McCarthy's legendary Communist witch hunts. An outgrowth of the House Un-American Activities Committee, a Cold War effort to ferret out Soviet spies and sympathizers, McCarthy's hysteria reached a fever pitch in 1953 with his chairmanship of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Careers and lives were destroyed when one was branded a Communist. By drawing parallels to the web of lies and injustice during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, Miller provocatively and defiantly pointed the finger of injustice straight back at the people accusing his show business peers of Communist collusion.

Herein lies the major problem with Edelstein's production. In choosing to set his Crucible in an indistinct period - perhaps the 1950s (judging from the women's mid-century house dresses and kitchen fixtures), perhaps the 17th century (as people enter and exit a room via ladder instead of stairs), or maybe the 21st century (Matrix-style set and trenchcoats ) - Miller's parallel is muddled. By setting the play during the height of the Puritan-era witch trials in Salem, the playwright shows how little our nation had grown.

With anachronistic costume, set and lighting designs, Edelstein is reaching for a sense of universality, but loses one of Miller's most important points: Salem's rigid religious conformity, patriarchal hierarchy and warped sense of justice were still alive in the U.S. 250 years later. By erasing the time gap with nary a puritan costume in sight and adding high-tech lighting fixtures, you remove the irony. Maybe Edelstein was seeking to redraw the line, shifting it to a parallel between the 1950s and post-9/11 America (especially with anti-terrorist scrawl on the downstage wall), but it does not hold. Real witch hysteria was not prevalent in the 1950s or today (well, except for Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, who was more mocked than persecuted with a charge of witchcraft).

To be sure, witch hunts still occur in modern America. Muslims are often branded terrorists, shaKen Down or jailed without any justification. Recently in Connecticut, school girls at a Christian academy were grilled to find out if they were homosexuals with a lesbian student being unceremoniously tossed out because of her sexuality. Today's slanted news allows for precious little justice or neutrality. Indeed, we live in a culture bred under the manifesto, "You are either with us or against us." Miller's Crucible is as timely as ever, but this production loses much of its sting by monkeying with the appropriate setting. Things that would result in a death sentence in the 17th century are barely yawned at now. The show begins with a bang as topless girls laugh and cavort through a catwalk forest high above our heads. Set in Puritan Massachusetts, it is shocking. Set in the present, these "girls gone wild" would be rewarded with a reality show.

This is not to say that the production is poor. Far from it. Edelstein has picked a fabulous cast who remind you of the power of Miller's well-written period dialogue. It is hard to fathom how the play was written in the 1950s when the language clearly feels true to the second generation of Americans. The actors exhibit tremendous ease with their lines. Standout performances abound with particularly strong work from Rachel Mewbron as chief troublemaker Abigail Williams, Rebecka Jones as Ann Putnam, Keir Keeley as Mary Warren, David Barlow as Reverend Hale, C. Zakiah Barksdale as Tituba, and Ron Crawford as Giles Corey. As the persecuted John and Elizabeth Proctor, Michael Laurence and Kate Forbes are heartbreaking and show the very human toll the witch hunt exacts. And in the role of the legalistic Deputy Governor Danforth, Sam Tsoutsouvas registers a breathtaking performance full of fire, brimstone and venom. Only Tom Beckett's Reverend Parris fails to catch hold with an overly-affected use of quirks and hand gestures distracting rather than enhancing his character. Edelstein's efficient direction makes the action not only hum along, but accumulate until the explosive courtroom scene, which is then followed by the darkest of denouements. He conducts this Crucible like a symphony, wringing out all of the passion and drama inherent in the text.

The scenic design by Eugene Lee, essentially a futuristic, stark grey-black wall and floor with various scenic elements making entrances and exits to indicate different settings, is reminiscent of previous Hartford Stage sets for Richard III, Macbeth and Othello. The costume designs, created by Ilona Somogyi, are all well-constructed but detract from the play, particularly when the young women march onstage in Smurf-colored costumes reminiscent of religious novices or young ladies in Amish country. It is an odd choice. Michael Chybowski's lighting is effective and atmospheric, but the mobile lighting fixtures serve to distract rather than enhance the production. The ever-dependable John Gromada provides excellent and powerful sound beds and music, particularly in the opening Bacchanalian dance in the forest.

It has been over 40 years since Hartford Stage last presented an Arthur Miller play. This is surprising with Michael Wilson's attraction to 20th century American dramatists (Williams, Foote and O'Neill, in particular). Although he did not choose this play himself, hopefully Tresnjak will endeavor to further explore the Miller canon in Hartford. With the majority of this season selected for him, this year will serve as an interim until we really see what lies ahead at Hartford Stage. But as far as season openers go, The Crucible is a smart, energetic, if flawed, start.

Photo by T. Charles Erickson