Review: The Crucible, West End transfer

Amidst a witch hunt in Salem, a group of young women find that a new kind of power is at their fingertips – but this is anything but magic. As fear spreads, the threat of something supernatural clouds the judgment of many figures… some more level-headed than others to begin with. 

As fearmongering increasingly fragments our nation, never has an intensely-studied GCSE English text been depicted with such cathartic relevance on the West End. 

Harking back to Ivor Van Hove’s 2015 production of A View From The Bridge where blood fell from the ceiling, this version of another Arthur Miller classic opens with water falling from the sky, forming a blurry blue curtain between the audience and the acts on stage. Es Devlin’s striking design is symbolic of the washing away of sins – something the characters in The Crucible desperately try to do by abolishing witchcraft, only to commit worse sins in the process.  

Brian Gleeson lives up to his glowing family name as the righteous and likable John Proctor, providing us with one of the most hair-raising moral dilemmas the West End has seen for years. His character arc, as seen in most Arthur Miller plays, is heart-wrenching and this particular portrayal had me gripping my seat with anticipation. Elizabeth Proctor, an unlikable and often clunky character to portray, was done with grace and eloquence by the level-headed Caitlin Fitzgerald. 

However, the gem of the production has to be HBO’s House of Dragon star, Milly Alcock, who performed the rambunctious character of Abigail Williams with strength and fortitude. Despite on occasion being pre-emptively reactive, the brazen passion Alcock brought to the role made this but a speck on her stand-out performance. Where some members of the chorus struggled to maintain their American twangs, you would never have known Alcock was from Australia, let alone that this was her stage debut. A career worth following. 

An amazing opportunity for young people to see the breakdown of a dense and complicated text on stage, I would highly recommend this to A Level and GCSE Drama and English classes alike. I am hopeful that after the West End run the show will continue, and maybe be offered as a live-stream option in cinemas at some point in the future.