Who saw director Ivo van Hove’s typically bizarre Broadway revival of The Crucible in 2016?
That was the production starring Ben Whishaw and Sophie Okonedo that situated 1690s Salem, Mass., within a 1950s era classroom and featured a wolfish dog prowling the premises to symbolize, oh, I don’t know, perhaps rabid hysteria?
Anyway, a far more satisfying—and scary—rendition of Arthur Miller’s admonitory drama from 1953 can now be witnessed in the far East Village at the Connelly Theater, where Bedlam delivers a blazing performance in dark, relatively intimate, 99-seat circumstances.
Eric Tucker, artistic director of Bedlam, removes the drama from its usual proscenium frame. In fact, most of the audience is arranged on risers upon the stage; these viewers look down upon the action rapidly erupting across the floor of the auditorium. Some 40 or so other spectators sit on worn wooden kitchen chairs that surround the playing area—locations best suited to theatergoers who like to experience furniture whizzing inches past their faces and actors crawling around their feet.
In Tucker’s exciting and extremely fluid staging, the 14-member ensemble frequently sets and resets the scenes, sometimes even as they are being played out, by moving various battered tables and chairs into different assemblies for the story’s bedrooms, woods, courtroom, and prisons, as aptly furnished by set designer John MacDermott. Certain actors use hand-held luminaires to dramatically illuminate close-up moments that punctuate the shadowy atmosphere artfully designed by Les Dickert.
Such nearly cinematic movement relieves the three-hour-plus play’s sometimes static text. You don’t need a synopsis, right? Miller’s allegory about the Salem witch trials and the 1950s McCarthy hearings also satisfies perfectly in terms of headlines today regarding so-called political witch hunts and instances of a government gone mad.
The Bedlam production makes no reference at all to current events, though you can’t help but make the connection even as the actors perform the familiar drama. Thank you, Mr. Miller.
You might fear that the physical nature of the performance, which at times turns frenzied, would result in generally blunt acting, but quite the contrary. Ryan Quinn and Susannah Millonzi provide intimate, deeply-felt portrayals of the Proctors, Caroline Grogan is heartbreaking as the frightened girl who vainly tries to recant her testimony, and Paul Lazar’s presiding judge appears both sage and increasingly befuddled by events.
The visceral performances by the somberly clad ensemble, some of whom double in their roles, turn shout-y at times, but for the most part Tucker guides the company into sharply defined work. It’s great to see this timely American classic brought to life so vividly in Bedlam’s excellent production.
The Crucible opened November 21, 2019, at the Connelly Theater and runs through December 29. Tickets and information: bedlam.org
