Crucible, The

The mass hysteria the Salem witch-hunt provoked in the 17th century was no more or less insidious an epidemic than the one McCarthyism fostered during the 1950s. America need never forget the political, moral and ethical issues on trial, in either century, thanks to Arthur Miller's arresting drama of intolerance The Crucible. It is the play he wrote specifically to denounce the too-often-rampant inequities of so-called justice. And now fifty years later, in yet another century, and in the light of the most recent and horrific events, are we prepared and willing to be tested again -- to witness the way one's rage and fear are apt to be manipulated and used to create another witch-hunt? Just when I thought I'd had enough of Miller's 48 year-old, award winning classic, it has been given a fine and thought-provoking production at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, under the direction of Bonnie J. Monte.

With a minimum of hysteria, Monte is giving us a most sober and clear vision of Miller's troubled play. The infamous Salem witch trials of 1692, with its not-too-subtle political analogies, were dramatized by Miller to not only pontificate on the general evils of superstition and mass hysteria but to vividly recreate a time when these human and inhuman aberrations lived in a society that feared both God and the devil, in equal propensity. The Crucible tells the tale of innocent people victimized by a jealous, lecherous girl and her young followers when their devilish fantasies get out of control. As performed on designer Mary Kay Samouce's evocative stage setting -- a rustic interior of wooden beams and stone work -- dramatically lighted by Matthew Adelson, the plot abounds, sometimes chaotically, in accusations, denials, threats, and confessions. This havoc unfolds as misguided minister Reverend Paris (Brian Dowd) and Deputy Governor Danforth (William Metzo) interrogate the good citizens of Salem, Mass. Dowd is appropriately maddening as a clergyman blinded by his own self-serving goals, as is Metzo as the chillingly stiff-necked and arrogant law enforcer.

While it is the household of adulterous farmer John Proctor and his reverential, loving wife Elizabeth that is the central focus, the involvement of the townspeople is made into riveting cameo scenes. Monte's staging is notable for being dramatic without resorting to flamboyance and expressive without a glimmer of pretension.

Representing an unprecedented burst of artistic correctness, all the performances are first rate, with not a single actor either overstepping or under-addressing that fine line of credibility. Paul Niebanck and Dana Reeve, as John Proctor and his wife, are extraordinarily moving and tragic figures in this riveting chronicle of a civilization run amok by vindictive predators.

Reeve is impressive as the farmer's wife who, although limited by the restraints of a puritanical social structure, reveals in her modest movements and tormented expressions a mighty spirit. Niebanck's stunning performance, as the stolid farmer guilty of adultery but who ends of representing the most noble and ethical aspects of the human spirit, stands high among a compelling company. Memorable moments are also contributed by Carole Caton, as the dangerously literate Rebecca Nurse and Linda Maurel Sithole, as Tituba, the high-strung servant from Barbados. Tom Brennan, as the irrational Judge Hawthrorn, makes a good case for the pompous attitude of the law. A steely Erin Lynlee Partin is appropriately chilling as the vengeful Abigail, a bad seed among a barrel full.

Jacqueline Firkins' appropriately drab costumes offset the almost blinding tension that permeates The Crucible from start to finish. Yet it is the sheer force of Miller's writing that will have you reeling long after the final curtain. It has been 17 years since the last production of The Crucible at the Shakespeare Festival. Perhaps we need to be reminded at least once in every generation with a production and reconsider its meaning.