Word: mr
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Arthur Miller is one of our leading contrivers of theatrical explosion, and the trial scene of his Crucible blows up with a thoroughly characteristic, thoroughly effective blast. The rest of his account of certain diabolic activities in Massachusetts is uneven but interesting; Mr. Miller's utter, earnest conviction flames forth from every line of it. The performance it receives at the Charles Playhouse is incompletely authoritative (many of the players, for one thing, are badly in need of diction lessons), but still worth a visit...
...Mr. Miller is interested here in "the sin of public terror" (his phraseology is a pretty good indication of where he stands on the matter), which was an even more vital issue when The Crucible was written than it is now. He indulges in no hindsight, and loads his play with no over-obvious parallels to contemporary events--though the audience is not discouraged from drawing parallels itself. But his play demonstrates impressively that when a man reasons from certain premises, it is inevitable for him to conclude that all opposition to the government is treason...
...Though Mr. Miller has expressed admiration for Bertolt Brecht, he is unwilling to follow him into the openly, almost abstractly, political drama. His play centers on three carefully humanized beings--a triangle, in fact. One would not expect adultery to be vitally involved with a matter so superficially asexual as the Salem witch trials, especially in the works of so high-minded an author. But the fact that his hero John Proctor has in times recently past "sweated like a stallion" after the slut who is now crying "Witch!" at his wife, adds to the play's intensity without detracting...
Proctor is given a somewhat twitchy performance by John Heffernan, who must surely have the best-exercised neck-muscles on the American stage. When Mr. Heffernan finally drops his mannerisms near the end of the play, it becomes clear that they have been largely concealing a good strong piece of acting. Mary Weed, Olympia Dukakis, and Edward Finnegan contribute excellent work in a generally in-and-out cast...
...reach $400,000. A long Broadway run was assured when the seven critics of the Manhattan dailies, seemingly under the sway of collective hypnosis, unanimously hailed the Williams drama. Said the Herald Tribune's Walter Kerr: "Enormously exciting." The Times's Brooks Atkinson called it "one of Mr. Williams' finest dramas." The most startling display of devotion came from the Post's Richard Watts, who said the play had a "haunting fascination" but poked three logical holes in the script, then concluded: "It must be a tribute to the play that such queries did disturb...