The play was first performed in 1953 at the time of
Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunts against supposed communists in America.
Miller, who had attracted the senator’s attention, devised the play as a way of
highlighting the injustice that was going on.
The play charts what happened in Salem in Massachusetts
in the 1690s, when there were trials involving
hundreds of people accused of being witches. Many were executed having
been processed through the courts.
In, the Crucible, a girl seeking revenge manages to
manipulate a situation where by whole numbers of innocent people are named as
being witches and in league with the devil.
These people are brought before courts, with many hanged
on little if any evidence. The idea of an evil being out there that threatens
all God fearing people was enough to bring about this hysteria - much injustice resulted. It only came to
an end when enough people stood up and said no more...as did McCarthyism.
The Old Vic production comes at a timely moment as the
government seeks to frighten the population with talk of terrorists threats.
The scare being created is then used to bring in draconian measures that take
away people’s most basic liberties on the back of a claim that it is the only way to ensure safety.
The threat is a perceived one rarely quantified – a bit
like the witches. The result over recent years has been a number of individuals
being detained for years on end, unaware of what they are accused of or their
accusers.
They are kept out of the court system, in a state of
almost perpetual limbo. The situation is perpetuated and justified by
periodically stoking up a threat in the public mind.
Miller’s play - brilliantly performed by an Old Vic cast
led by the excellent Richard Armitage - has many parallels with the present
day. Frightening people enough, so that they are prepared to accept draconian
action. What next – a helping of Franz Kafka’s
the Trial?
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