'The Crucible' Is A Tale For The Ages

The people of Salem, Massachusetts are on a witch hunt. And not only is nobody safe, those in charge cannot be moved by logic or compassion because they are on a mission from God.

Thus is the setting of “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, now staging on Fridays and Saturdays at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, through November 24. The 1953 play, a dramatization of the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of 1692 and 1693, is a thinly veiled allegory of McCarthyism and the resultant actions of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities in the 1950s, before which the playwright himself was questioned and convicted of contempt for refusing to name names.

The Tony Award-winning Best Play of 1953, presented by Bay Street as part of its Literature Live! series for schoolchildren as well as the general public, is considered to be one of the best of the classic American dramas and is compulsory reading in just about every school district in the United States.

In the Bay Street production, which is edited down to 90 minutes as are all the Literature Live! plays, the drama unfolds quickly and moves at a pace that will surely hold the attention of even the most hyperactive child while still keeping the adults interested.

Having read the play in grade school and again in high school, the story should not have been a surprise to this reviewer, yet it was. But that’s the funny thing about a multilayered and well written drama.

In grade school, I was struck by the subject matter—witches—which we had been studying at the time. Witches were cool, so “The Crucible” was cool.

Then in high school, a time when many teens, including myself back in the day, have that “it’s me against the world” feeling, it was the isolation, alienation and fear that most struck me upon reading this masterwork. The calling out and castigating of those different, unusual or odd—though brutal—is no shock to adolescents who live a version of that type of thuggish, bullying behavior most days.

But now, today, experiencing the story fresh after a few decades away from the source material, it was the hazy morality that made the biggest impact. Characters I had previously held blameless were now repugnant to me, those who had my sympathies 20 years ago, on Sunday turned my heart to ice. The only people worth liking seemed to be among the more than 50-some accused and dozen hanged (offstage, thankfully) by the story’s end.

I’m not sure if my life experience has enabled me to better see the nuances intended in the writing or if I’ve just become more unforgiving as an adult. One thing’s for sure, it’s impossible to turn away from the action, or the message, in this generation-crossing morality play.

Though there are nearly a dozen characters in this fast-paced production of “The Crucible,” directed by Bay Street’s Artistic Director, Murphy Davis, they each leave an indelible mark.

There’s the preacher who is more interested in hellfire and damnation than he is in God (Ken Forman as the Reverend Samuel Paris), his bewitching and devilish niece (Joanna Howard as Abigail Williams), who is at the root of all the evil, her sycophantic friend (Mackenzie Engeldrum as Mercy Lewis) and the plotting maid who finally comes to her senses, only to be turned on by her former besties (Kate O’Phalen as Mary Warren). There’s also the wife and mother who blames evildoing on her near barrenness (Kate Mueth as Ann Putnam) and her grieving husband (Al Bundonis as Thomas Putnam), a fornicating husband who is still held up by all who know him as a good man (Rob DiSario as John Proctor) and his steadfast yet suffering wife (Chloe Dirksen as Elizabeth Proctor). Rounding out the cast of characters is the devout midwife (Lisa Cory as Rebecca Nurse), a man of the cloth who loses his way and then finds it again too late (Peter Connolly as Reverend John Hale) and a zealous politician more interested in his profile than in his humanity (Joel Leffert as Deputy Governor Danforth).

Bottom line: There is so much food for thought in this dark but meaty play it’s impossible to let the fates of the doomed characters go after leaving the theater.

“The Crucible” is staging at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor through Saturday, November 24. Show days and times are Fridays and Saturdays, through November 24, at 7 p.m., with a matinee being offered on Saturday, November 24, at 2 p.m. Weekday performances are also being offered. For additional information, or to purchase tickets, call the box office at 725-9500 or visit the theater’s website at baystreet.org.