'The Crucible'

Last night, at the interval to Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ my company asked me would I be reviewing the play we were both enjoying so much. I shrugged and he responded that indeed ‘it is a different beast’. That is very much the case. Other than some college plays, it was during my teens that I last saw authentic, professional productions of my Junior and Leaving Cert plays and also ‘The Mousetrap’ on a trip to London. So while I can’t write a review that compares productions, performances or adaptations I can still confidently write that I enjoyed the play to no end. Its themes, the ideas of self-awareness and suspicion were just so effective. The ultimatums and extremes resonated on stage through outstanding performances and off-stage by evoking issues of today as much as the ideas Miller hoped to string out in the era of McCarthyism with his amazing words. There was power on the stage, I know from studying Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ that every sentence he writes is drenched in layers of subtext and insight and that is the sign of a great achievement in my mind that I would happily read the play now to gain perspective on the words, with its great delivery in mind. Last night great justice was done to Miller’s work. Highly recommended, running until the 7th of July in The Abbey Theatre.