The Crucible at the National Theatre: a ‘visually sumptuous’ production
Latest revival of 1953 Arthur Miller play is ‘masterly’ – but also rather on the ‘safe’ side

A key requirement for any revival of The Crucible is that it “doesn’t feel too much like a lecture in disguise”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. Famously, Arthur Miller wrote his 1953 play – about the “juvenile-led spasm of denunciation and execution” that seized Salem, Massachusetts in 1692-3 – as a “chilling quasiallegory” for McCarthyite anticommunism.
Lyndsey Turner’s “gripping” production “magnificently” passes that test – providing drama without didacticism. And even if the director doesn’t quite “reinvent” the piece, she thoroughly “refreshes it, honouring the specificity but banishing clutter”, and creating an “awe-inspiring monumentalism”. This is “the National at its best”.
It’s a “masterly” production, agreed Theo Bosanquet on What’s on Stage – brilliantly paced, and so “visually sumptuous” it’s “like watching a live oil painting”. The performances, too, are top-notch. Brendan Cowell puts an earthy spin on the role of John Proctor, playing him as a “farmer with his feet firmly in the soil. You believe he could plough for hours on a Sunday”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
As Abigail, Proctor’s vengeful teenage lover, Erin Doherty (the young Princess Anne in The Crown) is “skittish, frenzied and deeply malevolent” – and when she and the other girls “perform their wild hallucinations, it feels genuinely frightening”.
Turner’s production is “full of good ideas and atmospheric flourishes”, said Andrzej Lukowski on Time Out. Designer Es Devlin has created a spectacular “crashing wall of artificial rain that shrouds” the vast Olivier stage before every scene: combined with Tim Lutkin’s “exquisitely moody lighting, and the a cappella singing from the pink-clad chorus of girls”, this elemental cascade is spine-tingling. Yet for all the good ideas and fleet staging, it doesn’t amount to an “entirely coherent reinvention”.
This revival is certainly “handsomely raised”, but it is also rather on the “safe” side, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. What lingers in our minds afterwards is not so much the meat of Miller’s great drama, but the production’s “polished aesthetics”.
Olivier, National Theatre, London SE1. Until 5 November
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Morales seeks re-election defying constitution and criminal charges
Under the Radar Supporters of former president Evo Morales clash with authorities as political and economic turmoil deepens
-
June 22 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include a SpaceX flight, Bibi pulling Donald Trump toward war, and an ICE agent looking like a bank robber
-
5 bunker-busting cartoons about the Israel-Iran war
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on Iran waiting for Pete Hegseth to leak war plans and Donald Trump's wish for a Nobel prize
-
Grilled radicchio with caper and anchovy sauce recipe
The Week Recommends Smoky twist on classic Italian flavours is perfect to grill, drizzle and devour
-
Echo Valley: a 'twisty modern noir' starring Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney
The Week Recommends This tense thriller about a mother and daughter is 'American cinema for grown ups'
-
Larry Lamb shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The actor picks works by Neil Sheehan, Annie Proulx and Émile Zola
-
Stereophonic: an 'extraordinary, electrifying odyssey'
The Week Recommends David Adjmi's Broadway hit about a 1970s rock band struggling to record their second album comes to the West End
-
Shifty: a 'kaleidoscopic' portrait of late 20th-century Britain
The Week Recommends Adam Curtis' 'wickedly funny' documentary charts the country's decline using archive footage
-
Lollipop: a single mother trapped in a 'hellish catch-22'
The Week Recommends Daisy May Hudson's moving debut feature is a gut puncher in the Ken Loach tradition
-
Marfa, Texas: Big skies, fine art, and great eating
Feature A cozy neighborhood spot, a James Beard semifinalists, and more
-
6 light-filled homes on the Jersey Shore
Feature Featuring a Victorian with a wraparound porch in Beach Haven and a condo with ocean views in Asbury Park