THE CRUCIBLE
DIRECTOR: Yael Farber
CAST: Richard Armitage, Samantha Colley, Anna Madeley, Harry Attwell, Michael Thomas, Marama Corlett, Christopher Godwin, Adrian Schiller and Ann Firbank
RUNNING TIME: 217 minutes, including a 10-minute interval.
RATING: ****
Director Yael Farber wants to make theatre that matters, writes Diane de Beer
‘I am interested in theatre that really matters, I want to make it count, theatre that wakes people up,” says director Yael Farber stating her intent with this production. And she doesn’t let up. It’s in your face, the words are flung into your soul and even though you’re sitting for more than three hours, she has you pinned to the seat demanding attention. She gets it.
Many would have seen The Crucible but Farber is determined to get to the heart of Miller’s work, which was written in America’s traumatic McCarthy years when people’s careers and lives were destroyed by just the hint of communism surfacing somewhere in the background. An attendance at a meeting was enough to achieve devastating results and friends were turned to reveal untruths about their close circle. He used the Salem witch trials to tell his tale.
From the music which Farber describes as “an ear close to the body” and “being in the sonic zone”, to the metronomic rituals of the young women swept up by a fervour that is intoxicating to their very being and much closer to the evil they’re accusing others of, it is the emotional wave that builds from start to finish. It has you listening to every word, every sound and rediscovering the text written so many decades ago.
It is more relevant than ever in a world turned upside down by belief systems that dominate minds and actions, from beheadings to police killings and a focus on ‘the other’ rather than embracing the differences that bring richness to our lives. Farber harnesses Miller’s furies to spew fire and brimstone in a realm where they have lost all their humanity.
The Crucible is a scorching indictment on power gone off kilter, where no reason exists and people are centered on their own ego rather than serving the greater good. And Farber pushes her players to the hilt. The power of the performances is extraordinary, almost like a clarion call that focuses the mind to pay attention to every nuance.
It’s glorious to watch one of our own rise to such heights on the world stage – and here have the chance to witness the growth as she grabs the chance to tell a story through a play that has been part of her passion from a very early age.
She’s determined to engage her audience and when you do, the rewards are abundant.
If you liked Mies Julie or Malora, you will like this.
• Screenings: tomorrow, March 18 and 19 at 7.30pm, and Sunday at 2.30pm at Cinema Nouveau theatres in Joburg (Rosebank Mall), Pretoria (Brooklyn Mall), Durban (Gateway) and Cape Town (V&A Waterfront).