Christopher Gray describes the Old Vic’s revival of The Crucible as ‘compelling’

The blistering physicality that is so marked a feature of the Old Vic’s superb revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible will hardly surprise the seasoned theatregoers of Oxford, given that its director is Yaël Farber. The work of this gifted South African was introduced to British audiences by the Oxford Playhouse boss (as she then was) Tish Francis. Having seen SeZar, Farber’s reworking of Julius Caesar, in South Africa — and been knocked out by it — Francis brought it to Oxford in 2001 and next year arranged for a national tour. The Playhouse continued as co-producer on further British tours with Amajuba (2004) and Molora (2008), also written and directed by Farber.

Her directorial debut at the Old Vic follows success last year with Mies Julie, a sizzling revamp in a South African context of Strindberg’s Miss Julie, about a haughty aristocrat’s sexual shenanigans with a servant.

Something of the same smouldering intensity is observable in the adulterous relationship — which is glimpsed only in its aftermath — that drives the action in The Crucible, concerned with the Salem witch trials of 1692. Again the illicit affair involves a master and servant, but with the sexual roles reversed.

Upright local farmer John Proctor succumbs to temptation posed by the presence in his house of a sexy young domestic, Abigail, the niece of the Salem minister, the Rev Parris (Michael Thomas). Proctor at once regrets his folly and confesses to his wife Elizabeth (Anna Madeley), who orders the girl to leave.

This is the back story, picked up as the drama proceeds. Now to the horrible present in which Abigail, still lusting after Proctor and eager for revenge, becomes the prime mover in a witch-hunt whose dreadful momentum soon begins to threaten Elizabeth.

That the accusations of Abigail and her schoolgirl accomplices are lies is always evident to the audience. This makes it especially nerve-wracking to watch as their stories convince such authorities as the studiedly superior Deputy Governor Danforth (Jack Ellis) and the odious Judge Hathorne (Christopher Godwin). Their certainty over Salem’s invas-ion by diabolical denizens of the invisible world is shared initially by a practised witch-hunter, the Rev John Hale (Adrian Schiller). How we feel his agony as he comes to realise that he is wrong and to regret his part in breath-ing life into the fraudulent enterprise.

Miller wrote the play as a response to Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch-hunt of the 1950s. It maintains topicality as a worrying study of religious fundamentalism.

I leave till last to state that the parts of Proctor and Abigail are brilliantly played, in this compelling, ‘in the round’ staging, by Richard Armitage and Samantha Colley. Old Vic debutant(e)s both, he is an established star, well-known for his film work in The Hobbit trilogy and Captain America, while she, by contrast, is making her professional debut, having just completed her studies for the stage. These took place until this year at the Oxford School of Drama. Her success is another feather in the cap of this admirable institution.

The Crucible
The Old Vic, London 
Until September 13
Tickets: 0844 871 7628; oldvictheatre.com