A Play For All Generations

Every time you feel uncomfortable using a word you have been made to re-evaluate by society's 'thought police' - black, manhole, chairman - Arthur Miller must give a wry smile from his grave.

You are either with us or against us is a recurring theme in this most timeless of plays, which was originally rooted in the communist witch hunts of 1950's America, when Senator Joseph McCarthy urged countless celebrities to purge themselves by naming reds under the bed.



Miller refused to play ball with the The House Un-American Activities Committee and, for his sins, was publicly pilloried, whilst his wife at the time, Marilyn Monroe, was put under incredible pressure to sack her husband; she refused.

But Miller got his own back writing The Crucible, a dramatisation of the Salem witch trials which took place in Massachusetts Bay in 1692 and 1693, as an allegory of McCarthyism.

And, for long enough, that's what the play was remembered for but, as the West Yorkshire Playhouse's Artistic Director, James Brining, attests, the play has now become much more, speaking to generations of people since Miller penned his classic in the early 1950's.

It is a powerful script which explores the use and abuse of power by the 'Establishment'. In Russia the persecution of homosexuals is endorsed at political level, Afghanistan's military men were 'freedom fighters' when the Russians occupied their territory, now they are 'terrorists' because they're against us, whoever 'us' happens to be.



Those perception 'shifts' and pervading attitudes are made by the spin doctors, be they communists or capitalists, the 'Establishment' if you like and, in The Crucible, Miller shows them for what they are, manipulators determined to ensure that the majority are made to think the 'right' thoughts, for the alternative is too greater price to pay. For a moment it might have been Orwell's 1984.

Brining's production was excellent with a grey, puritanical backdrop that remained largely faithful to the early settlers of Massachusetts America. Just the simple touch of a microphone as one of the witnesses was cross examined gave a slight nod to the McCarthy era.



The retracting floor opened up at one point as if the gates of Hell were about to swallow up the cast. And there were some wonderful performances. Martin Marquez's John Proctor was exemplary and Kate Phillips as Abigail Williams let the world know that she'll be around for a while........and a bouquet must go to each and every one of the other players whose seamless performances provided the Playhouse with a stunning opening to its Autumn season.

My literary education spanned many tomes, however, there were two lines that always used to crack up the class, egged on by my good self of course, Shakespeare's 'the angels trumpeted their arrival' and that most wonderful of Miller lines 'A fart on Thomas Putnam' from The Crucible.

Alas, I waited in anticipation but, sadly, it never arrived, or was I just too jaded from a day of house clearance to notice it? Equally its omission may be something to do with the European Human Rights Act but, hot air or nay, this was a wonderful three hours, worth every minute.

Until October 25th.