CHARLIE CONDOU AND VICTORIA YEATES LEAD CAST IN ARTHUR MILLER’S CLASSIC – THE CRUCIBLE
The blistering classic, The Crucible, brings you seventeenth century Salem, where truth holds no currency, fear is used as a political tool and where intruding threats are invented to explain current woes. Arthur Miller’s terrifying witch-hunt classic couldn’t be more pertinent in today’s political landscape and arrives at Richmond Theatre from Tuesday 11th to Saturday 15th April.
In a tight knit community, a group of girls is caught dancing wildly in the woods. Allegations of witchcraft ensue. Lust, superstition and personal grievances collide and the whole village is quickly consumed by an unstoppable flow of fear, paranoia and manipulation – suddenly no-one is safe from their neighbour and the noose. Who will survive?
Arthur Miller is author of many of today’s most celebrated modern classics including All My Sons, Death of a Salesman and A View from the Bridge. His landmark drama, The Crucible, stands as both a historical record and a political parable for our times. The unrelenting and violent witch-hunt, originally written as an allegory about the brutal reign of McCarthyism in 1950s America, resonates into the present day as a stark and ferocious warning from the past.
Charlie Condou, best known for playing Marcus Dent on the UK’s best-loved soap, Coronation Street takes on the role of witch-hunter Reverend Hale in the spine-tingling thriller with Victoria Yeates, who is currently appearing in BBC period drama Call The Midwife, as Elizabeth Proctor. They will be joined by Eoin Slattery as John Proctor and Lucy Keirl as Abigail Williams.
Other cast members include, Paul Beech as Francis Nurse, David Delve as Giles Corey, Cornelius Clarke as Reverend Parris, Diana Yekinni as Tituba and Mercy Lewis, David Kirkbride as Ezekiel Cheever, Eleanor Montgomery as Ann Putnam and Susanna Walcott, Augustina Seymour as Mary Warren and Rebecca Nurse, Leona Allen as Betty Parris and Carl Patrick as Thomas Putnam and Marshall Herrick.
This bold new production of one of the 20th Century’s finest plays is directed by the Queen’s Theatre’s new artistic director Douglas Rintoul, who thrilled audiences with his recent sell-out production Made in Dagenham. Rintoul’s Brechtian take on the production draws parallels with Trump’s America and Post Brexit UK where truth is no longer an absolute and daily reports of race-driven hate crime fill the news.
The Crucible is co-produced with award-winning producing house Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Selladoor Productions, leading producer of mid and large-scale productions including recent successful UK tours of The
History Boys, Sunset Song, Little Shop of Horrors, Footloose and American Idiot, in association with Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.
Douglas Rintoul says ‘The Crucible speaks more to us now than it has done since its premiere in 1953. I’m thrilled to be directing this terrifying play and for this production to be reaching audiences across the UK and in Luxembourg through this innovative partnership’.
David Hutchinson, Executive Creative Producer of Selladoor Productions says ‘We are delighted to be working with the Queen’s Theatre, with Douglas Rintoul at the helm bringing one of the most important plays of the last century on a major UK Tour.’
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