Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible tells the story of the community of Salem, Massachusetts; a true story embellished for the stage. It is set in the context of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and parallels Miller’s own experience of McCarthyism in 1950s America. Miller is renowned for his flawed male protagonists and through the character of John Proctor, Miller signifies the destruction of a family unit and of the wider community in the wake of a legal authority bound by the worship of Almighty God and the fear of the devil.
The first thing that hits you when you enter the auditorium is the creative manipulation of a typically proscenium performance space. The Crucible kicks off the Theatre Royal’s seven month In-The-Round Ensemble Season and it captivates from the start. A relatively minimalistic set, much of the stage lay empty, begging to be used - and with a cast of 18 in a community-orientated play, this was never to be an issue.
Juliet Forster’s direction assuaged the harsh exclusivity of a standard end-on production and invited the audience into the intimate space, challenging the actors to play to all sides. One of the pitfalls of in-the-round productions can be restricted sightlines, and save for a rare few occasions, the choreography of movement in this piece was faultless.
While the set seemed initially bare, from the moment the house lights dimmed, the audience were treated to the intricacies of Dawn Allsopp’s stage design; trap doors opened from beneath the staging to reveal staircases, and immediately we were in an upper floor bedroom. Cast members were effectively utilised during seamless transitions to convert the bed into a table; a door frame and kitchen stove later rising from the stage floor to signify the Proctors' kitchen.
The cast were an eclectic ensemble of seasoned national performers, complemented by young talent from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, part of the York Theatre Royal’s commitment to providing professional experience to the next generation of actors. The play’s conflicted protagonist, John Proctor, was delivered with an air of powerful frailty by Stephen Billington, whose tortured relationship both with his own inner repentance and with his cuckolded wife (Helen Kay) were expertly realised. The final exchange of a passionate kiss was the height of a fascinating dynamic between man and wife, and the apex of well-crafted chemistry between these two actors.
Though not a pivotal character in the play, the matriarchal Ann Putnam was deftly performed by Andrina Carroll from the off, and it was a welcome use of multi-roleing when Carroll returned to play the accused beggar Sarah Good; her versatility apparent through the two very contrasting roles. Carroll described Ann Putnam as a ‘soul in torment’, and without a doubt this came through in her performance: her guttural cries for the loss of her seven children were tragic to witness.
Pamela Buchner and Neil Salvage deserve special mention for their portrayals of Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey respectively; the two together brought some great moments of comic timing and light relief to an otherwise entirely sombre piece. For a play such as The Crucible, which must be appreciated retrospectively for its original context, dialogue such as, “I’ve had no breakfast,” provide a brief moment of respite from the solemnity of the plot in which the audience may take stock of the events so far. Miller himself stated that, “Plays ought to make sense to common-sense people”, and Buchner’s delivery allowed for the common-sense people of York to relate to characters which are, after all, very human characters. The communal intake of breath from the auditorium when Elizabeth Proctor reported the death of Giles Corey is recognition enough that Salvage presented a likeable character and well-rounded performance.
The character of Danforth (Michael Roberts) is written in such a way that as the representative of the law, he appears almost as a two-dimensional ‘bad guy’, and while I couldn’t help but feel during his first exchanges that he was paying homage to Jeremy Irons, with sly cutting remarks and a haughty air of menace, there was certainly a complex thought process that shone through towards the latter half of his scenes. With other notable performances by Jonathan Race (Reverend Hale) and Simeon Truby (Reverend Parris), among others, this was a superbly acted piece with some well-crafted character relationships.
While I had a couple of niggles with audibility and the consistency of accents, these can be forgiven; this was a long show, finishing at 10.25pm, but it didn’t once feel its length. When you leave the auditorium of the York Theatre Royal and your biggest complaint with the last three hours is that the ‘Gentlemens toilet’ sign doesn’t have an apostrophe, I think it’s fair to say you just enjoyed a great night of theatre. Runs until May 28th, not to be missed!
Well if we're on the subject of apostrophes...it's the Procters' kitchen, not the Procter's kitchen. #grammaticaldoublestandards.
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