Event

The Crucible

A wife is sentenced to hang for reading books; men and women are imprisoned or executed because they have been seen with the Devil; children are punished for dancing. not the happenings in some dystopian fictional world but events that occurred 300 years ago during the early years of European settlement in North America and brought to the stage next month in Arthur Millers timeless play The Crucible.

Arguably the greatest play in the modern era, Arthur Millers The Crucible is based on real events in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, at a time when the residents of New England lived a life of strict religious conformism. As the play opens, a group of young women gather in the woods to dance and to conjure spirits. The town is soon gripped by accusations of witchcraft, its people living with a rising sense of fear and dread, and nobody knows where the finger of suspicion will point next.

Written at a time when the Cold War was at its height and Miller himself was accused of having communist sympathies, the historical events of 1692 became an allegory for his own experiences. Echoing down the ages, the story of the Salem witch trials still finds resonance and relevance in our own troubled times.

Winner of the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play. This exciting drama about the Puritan purge of witchcraft in old Salem is both a gripping historical play and a timely parable of our contemporary society. "A powerful drama." NY Times. "Strongly written." NY Daily News.