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
-
The easy elegance of Cap Ferret
The Week Recommends 'Elemental and otherworldly' destination is loved for its natural beauty
-
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: heavy metal wildman and lovable reality TV dad
In the Spotlight For Osbourne, metal was 'not the music of hell but rather the music of Earth, not a fantasy but a survival guide'
-
Spring greens and chickpea curry recipe
The Week Recommends This mouthwatering curry is quick to throw together
-
Gazer: 'paranoid noir chiller' is a gripping watch
The Week Recommends Ryan J. Sloan's debut film is haunted with 'skin-crawling unease'
-
William Kentridge: The Pull of Gravity – a 'bold' exhibition
The Week Recommends The South African artist brings his distinctive works to Yorkshire Sculpture Park
-
Sarah Dunant shares her favourite books
The Week Recommends The British novelist picks works by Sergeanne Golon, Jill Burke and Natalie Zemon
-
Inter Alia: Rosamund Pike is 'electric' in gut-wrenching legal drama
The Week Recommends Australian playwright Suzie Miller is back with a follow up to her critically-acclaimed hit play Prima Facie
-
Unforgivable: harrowing drama about abuse and rehabilitation
The Week Recommends 'Catastrophic impact' of abuse is explored in 'thought-provoking' series