A melting pot

There has been a recent wave of revival and celebration for Arthur Miller's plays, with David Suchet playing in The Price at Wyndham's theatre, and the Young Vic presenting an all-black cast in Death of a Salesman, and now The Yard is staging a female-led production of The Crucible, with John Proctor being played by a woman. This award-winning theatre space, committed to telling contemporary stories in contemporary ways, is now staging its first classic text by a non-living writer.

This prompted many questions. Regarding the female-led cast I immediately asked why? Is there a need for these characters to go through this metamorphosis? Is this casting a comment on gender or female empowerment, and is this the right play to tackle those issues when the themes of the play are male domination, and the people who lose out the most are the innocent women? Why have a woman play the particularly patriarchal role of John Proctor?