MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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No real catharsis offered
This production’s bland ‘let’s not offend anybody’ approach could not be less appropriate in a work with such piercing and targeted acumen, writes MARY CONWAY
(L to R) Sophia Brown (Tituba), Fisayo Akinade (Rev. Hale), Alastair Parker (Thomas Putnam), Martin Johnston (Ensemble) and Zoe Aldrich (Ann Putnam)
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
The Crucible
National Theatre
PLAYWRIGHT Arthur Miller is a towering figure of the 20th century. The Crucible is one reason why.
Written in 1953, the play transports us to late 17th-century Massachusetts and the infamous Salem witch trials. It’s a magnificent tale, rooted in those early years of the American dream when the quest for religious tolerance and individual freedom clashed with the tyranny of the big idea and the spawning of new authority figures. The quintessential struggle between those who would impose order and obedience and those who instinctively fragment it is the source of all frenzy here.
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MARY CONWAY relishes two matchless performers and a masterclass in tightly focused wordplay
