Review: ‘The Crucible’ Lets Wagon Wheel Actors Get Intensely Dramatic
July 27, 2017 at 6:13 a.m.
Review: ‘The Crucible’ Lets Wagon Wheel Actors Get Intensely Dramatic
By David [email protected]
They were all shows that I didn’t have a problem in recommending, especially the Brooks comedy – great actors, enjoyable performances, good direction, etc.
But Arthur Miller’s dramatic play “The Crucible,” now on the Wagon Wheel stage through Aug. 5, is something else entirely. It’s heavy. It says a lot about society; political, religious and social structures; about people and who humans are and aren’t and ought to be; wealth and greed; power and lust; and a whole host of issues worth discussing. Which is exactly one reason why I not only don’t have a problem in recommending audiences go see the show co-directed by Ben Dicke and Andy Robinson, but I also strongly urge audiences to spend their money to go buy a ticket and see it. Go see it with friends and family, and then discuss it afterward.
And, yes, the actors’ performances are intense and captivating, which are another 19 reasons to take in the show.
“The Crucible” opened up on Broadway 64 years ago while the U.S. was under the shadow of the Red Scare. The play is set during the Salem, Mass., witch trials of the 1690s as an allegory for the 1950s and McCarthyism.
On some days, with the country today so divided between left and right, and certain people preaching intolerance as if that’s somehow a good thing, it’s not difficult to see parallels between the witch trials portrayed in Miller’s play, the Red Scare and today’s world.
Wagon Wheel’s production begins with the actors standing in a circle around the stage, singing a hymn. John Proctor (Riley McFarland) and his wife, Elizabeth (Kira Lace Hawkins), meet in center stage, and then come face-to-face with Abigail Williams (McKenzie Kurtz), the niece of The Rev. Samuel Parris (Ben Ahlers). Abigail had an affair with John when she worked for he and his wife. Parris’ daughter, Betty (Cordelia Grandon), then takes center stage under a red light and screams.
Audiences then see Rev. Parris putting his motionless daughter in a bed, and learn that the night before Parris had found Betty, Abigail and some other girls, along with his Barbadian slave Tituba (Leanne Antonio) dancing in the woods in some type of ritual. The village begins spreading rumors of witchcraft, and Parris decides to invite The Rev. John Hale (Blake Bojewski), an expert in witchcraft and demonology, to investigate.
It doesn’t take long for the girls to begin hurling accusations of witchcraft at others, starting with Abigail accusing Tituba of it. Betty quickly joins in, and several other girls follow. The girls’ desire for attention becomes a thirst for power, and Abigail wants to “dance with (John) on (his) wife’s grave.”
There are four acts in the play, and the number of people accused of witchcraft, arrested for it or hung for it piles up as the show moves from one act to the next.
There really isn’t a bad performance in this show. The actors have shown their comedic chops during the season, so for this powerful drama, they bring out even better performances to the stage.
Audiences may remember McFarland’s great performance in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” as Clive Paget/John Jasper. As John Proctor in “The Crucible,” he dials his intensity up a couple of notches and gives an amazing performance of a man trying to find his goodness while dealing with all the deceit, lies and other troubles thrown his way. McFarland delivers a lot of memorable, impassioned lines, but at the end of the play when he’s sounding off about his name – his voice is raised, the veins in his neck are popping, there’s tears, his gestures are forceful – it’s an award-winning performance.
As his Elizabeth, Hawkins brings to the table a range of strong emotions that a natural born acting talent like her possesses. She can go from shocked to sad to calm in no time at all and it’s all there on the stage in her face, voice and body. Hawkins thankfully has been performing at the Wagon Wheel for seven years, and as Elizabeth she displays so much of the talent that audiences can’t wait to see whenever she’s in a show. She was hilarious as Elizabeth Benning in “Young Frankenstein,” and she’s heartbreaking as Elizabeth Proctor in “The Crucible.”
In “Footloose” this season, Matthew Copley did a great job as Ren McCormack. In my review of that show, I noted how I’d like to see Copley in a dramatic piece. Sure enough, as Thomas Putnam, Copley shows that his acting skills aren’t limited to comedies and lighter fare. He has some real fire in his belly, and with that fire he delivers his accusatory lines quite well.
Bojewski was awesome as Willard Hewitt in “Footloose” and as Crutchie in “Newsies.” In “The Crucible,” like Copley, Bojewski gets to take on more dramatic fare and succeeds. His character, The Rev. Hale, has a change of heart during the course of the play and sees the errors of his ways. Bojewski is best in “The Crucible” when he’s defending John Proctor and the other innocents accused of witchcraft as Bojewski’s passion for others comes out and rings true.
The Rev. Parris doesn’t get a change of heart until toward the end when he loses everything. Up until then, he’s so worried about his reputation, finances and his job as the village pastor that he’ll do what he has to in order to maintain it. I loved Ahlers as Igor in “Young Frankenstein” – he practically stole the show in my book – and his obvious stage talent is again present as Parris in “The Crucible.” That talent best appears at the beginning of the play when he’s trying to figure out what’s going on with Betty and at the end of the show when he’s trying to get John Proctor to confess. Those two scenes are highlights for Ahlers.
Speaking of Betty, Grandon is amazing in the short time she’s on the stage. I could easily see how someone might think she’s possessed by Lucifer – she played that so well. She will be just a seventh-grader at Edgewood Middle School this fall, but she came off as a real pro in her role in “The Crucible.”
Michael Bradley was Inspector Hans Kemp in “Young Frankenstein,” but he caught my attention much more in “The Crucible” as Giles Corey. He gave an ornery performance that fit the old man well.
As Tituba, Antonio displayed her strong dramatic attributes. In Act I, Tituba is accused of witchcraft and threatened to be whipped so she’s afraid for her life, and Antonio strongly delivers that fear and survival instinct. But having seen her this summer in such roles as Princess Puffer in “Drood” and Rusty in “Footloose,” I didn’t have a doubt that she could more than handle the dramatic shows well.
Mary Warren, played by Allsun O’Malley, works for the Proctors, but is “friends” with Abigail, Mercy Lewis (Kara Ziringer) and the other girls who bully her. O’Malley gives a riveting, strong, emotionally charged performance as a delicate girl who is torn between what is right and what is safe. When Mary goes into court and stands before Deputy Gov. Danforth (Mike Yocum), Parris, Judge Hathorne (Collin Phillips), Ezekiel Cheever (Noah Ruebeck), O’Malley’s performance goes to level 10 and it’s so, so good. You can see the terror in O’Malley’s eyes as Mary and you feel pity for her.
Then there’s Abigail, played by Kurtz who channels Winona Ryder’s brilliant performance in the 1996 film version of “The Crucible” perfectly. Kurtz – who was Ariel Moore in “Footloose” and Inga in “Young Frankenstein” – couldn’t have played the role of the conniving, manipulative vixen any better. I disliked the character so much, I loved her. Like O’Malley, Kurtz was cast in the right role.
The only issue I found with the production was the staging of some of the characters when they weren’t in a scene or giving a line. They would stand in a corner or sit on a bench, often blocking the view of the audience, especially if you were in the first row or two. Occasionally, in the theater-in-the-round like the Wagon Wheel, you have some scenery or characters or whatever blocking a total view of the stage, but in “The Crucible” this could have been avoided if characters not pertinent to a particular scene or moment moved off stage completely.
But other than that, I’ve got no complaints.
My rating of “The Crucible” (out of four): 3.75.
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They were all shows that I didn’t have a problem in recommending, especially the Brooks comedy – great actors, enjoyable performances, good direction, etc.
But Arthur Miller’s dramatic play “The Crucible,” now on the Wagon Wheel stage through Aug. 5, is something else entirely. It’s heavy. It says a lot about society; political, religious and social structures; about people and who humans are and aren’t and ought to be; wealth and greed; power and lust; and a whole host of issues worth discussing. Which is exactly one reason why I not only don’t have a problem in recommending audiences go see the show co-directed by Ben Dicke and Andy Robinson, but I also strongly urge audiences to spend their money to go buy a ticket and see it. Go see it with friends and family, and then discuss it afterward.
And, yes, the actors’ performances are intense and captivating, which are another 19 reasons to take in the show.
“The Crucible” opened up on Broadway 64 years ago while the U.S. was under the shadow of the Red Scare. The play is set during the Salem, Mass., witch trials of the 1690s as an allegory for the 1950s and McCarthyism.
On some days, with the country today so divided between left and right, and certain people preaching intolerance as if that’s somehow a good thing, it’s not difficult to see parallels between the witch trials portrayed in Miller’s play, the Red Scare and today’s world.
Wagon Wheel’s production begins with the actors standing in a circle around the stage, singing a hymn. John Proctor (Riley McFarland) and his wife, Elizabeth (Kira Lace Hawkins), meet in center stage, and then come face-to-face with Abigail Williams (McKenzie Kurtz), the niece of The Rev. Samuel Parris (Ben Ahlers). Abigail had an affair with John when she worked for he and his wife. Parris’ daughter, Betty (Cordelia Grandon), then takes center stage under a red light and screams.
Audiences then see Rev. Parris putting his motionless daughter in a bed, and learn that the night before Parris had found Betty, Abigail and some other girls, along with his Barbadian slave Tituba (Leanne Antonio) dancing in the woods in some type of ritual. The village begins spreading rumors of witchcraft, and Parris decides to invite The Rev. John Hale (Blake Bojewski), an expert in witchcraft and demonology, to investigate.
It doesn’t take long for the girls to begin hurling accusations of witchcraft at others, starting with Abigail accusing Tituba of it. Betty quickly joins in, and several other girls follow. The girls’ desire for attention becomes a thirst for power, and Abigail wants to “dance with (John) on (his) wife’s grave.”
There are four acts in the play, and the number of people accused of witchcraft, arrested for it or hung for it piles up as the show moves from one act to the next.
There really isn’t a bad performance in this show. The actors have shown their comedic chops during the season, so for this powerful drama, they bring out even better performances to the stage.
Audiences may remember McFarland’s great performance in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” as Clive Paget/John Jasper. As John Proctor in “The Crucible,” he dials his intensity up a couple of notches and gives an amazing performance of a man trying to find his goodness while dealing with all the deceit, lies and other troubles thrown his way. McFarland delivers a lot of memorable, impassioned lines, but at the end of the play when he’s sounding off about his name – his voice is raised, the veins in his neck are popping, there’s tears, his gestures are forceful – it’s an award-winning performance.
As his Elizabeth, Hawkins brings to the table a range of strong emotions that a natural born acting talent like her possesses. She can go from shocked to sad to calm in no time at all and it’s all there on the stage in her face, voice and body. Hawkins thankfully has been performing at the Wagon Wheel for seven years, and as Elizabeth she displays so much of the talent that audiences can’t wait to see whenever she’s in a show. She was hilarious as Elizabeth Benning in “Young Frankenstein,” and she’s heartbreaking as Elizabeth Proctor in “The Crucible.”
In “Footloose” this season, Matthew Copley did a great job as Ren McCormack. In my review of that show, I noted how I’d like to see Copley in a dramatic piece. Sure enough, as Thomas Putnam, Copley shows that his acting skills aren’t limited to comedies and lighter fare. He has some real fire in his belly, and with that fire he delivers his accusatory lines quite well.
Bojewski was awesome as Willard Hewitt in “Footloose” and as Crutchie in “Newsies.” In “The Crucible,” like Copley, Bojewski gets to take on more dramatic fare and succeeds. His character, The Rev. Hale, has a change of heart during the course of the play and sees the errors of his ways. Bojewski is best in “The Crucible” when he’s defending John Proctor and the other innocents accused of witchcraft as Bojewski’s passion for others comes out and rings true.
The Rev. Parris doesn’t get a change of heart until toward the end when he loses everything. Up until then, he’s so worried about his reputation, finances and his job as the village pastor that he’ll do what he has to in order to maintain it. I loved Ahlers as Igor in “Young Frankenstein” – he practically stole the show in my book – and his obvious stage talent is again present as Parris in “The Crucible.” That talent best appears at the beginning of the play when he’s trying to figure out what’s going on with Betty and at the end of the show when he’s trying to get John Proctor to confess. Those two scenes are highlights for Ahlers.
Speaking of Betty, Grandon is amazing in the short time she’s on the stage. I could easily see how someone might think she’s possessed by Lucifer – she played that so well. She will be just a seventh-grader at Edgewood Middle School this fall, but she came off as a real pro in her role in “The Crucible.”
Michael Bradley was Inspector Hans Kemp in “Young Frankenstein,” but he caught my attention much more in “The Crucible” as Giles Corey. He gave an ornery performance that fit the old man well.
As Tituba, Antonio displayed her strong dramatic attributes. In Act I, Tituba is accused of witchcraft and threatened to be whipped so she’s afraid for her life, and Antonio strongly delivers that fear and survival instinct. But having seen her this summer in such roles as Princess Puffer in “Drood” and Rusty in “Footloose,” I didn’t have a doubt that she could more than handle the dramatic shows well.
Mary Warren, played by Allsun O’Malley, works for the Proctors, but is “friends” with Abigail, Mercy Lewis (Kara Ziringer) and the other girls who bully her. O’Malley gives a riveting, strong, emotionally charged performance as a delicate girl who is torn between what is right and what is safe. When Mary goes into court and stands before Deputy Gov. Danforth (Mike Yocum), Parris, Judge Hathorne (Collin Phillips), Ezekiel Cheever (Noah Ruebeck), O’Malley’s performance goes to level 10 and it’s so, so good. You can see the terror in O’Malley’s eyes as Mary and you feel pity for her.
Then there’s Abigail, played by Kurtz who channels Winona Ryder’s brilliant performance in the 1996 film version of “The Crucible” perfectly. Kurtz – who was Ariel Moore in “Footloose” and Inga in “Young Frankenstein” – couldn’t have played the role of the conniving, manipulative vixen any better. I disliked the character so much, I loved her. Like O’Malley, Kurtz was cast in the right role.
The only issue I found with the production was the staging of some of the characters when they weren’t in a scene or giving a line. They would stand in a corner or sit on a bench, often blocking the view of the audience, especially if you were in the first row or two. Occasionally, in the theater-in-the-round like the Wagon Wheel, you have some scenery or characters or whatever blocking a total view of the stage, but in “The Crucible” this could have been avoided if characters not pertinent to a particular scene or moment moved off stage completely.
But other than that, I’ve got no complaints.
My rating of “The Crucible” (out of four): 3.75.
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