REVIEW ROUNDUP: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible Opens at London’s Open Air Theatre in Regent Park

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible has officially opened at the Open Air Theatre in London’s Regent’s Park. Directed by Timothy Sheader, the production continues through June 19.

The company features Lucy May Barker (Mercy Lewis), Charlie Cameron (Susanna Walcott), Philip Cumbus (Reverend John Hale), Emma Cunniffe (Elizabeth Proctor), Oliver Ford Davies (Deputy-Governor Danforth), Anni Domingo (Tituba), Susan Engel (Rebecca Nurse), Christopher Fulford (Reverend Samuel Parris), Patrick Godfrey (Giles Corey), Christopher Hunter (Judge Hathorne), Bettrys Jones (Mary Warren), Paul Kemp (Ezekiel Cheever), Geoff Leesley (Thomas Putnam), Alexandra Mathie (Ann Putnam/Sarah Good), Gary Milner (Marshall Herrick), Patrick O’Kane (John Proctor), Ellie Paskell (Betty Parris), Malcolm Rogers (Francis Nurse), and Emily Taaffe (Abigail Williams).

The creative team includes Jon Bausor (production design), Paul Keogan (lighting design) and Fergus O’Hare (sound design), along with Nick Powell (original score).

The critics have weighed in and are finding praise not only from Sheader’s production but also for the new directions in which he is taking the venue. Reviews are also touting the design and many of the performances.

Among the reviews are:

Daily Telegraph
The Crucible at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, review
“As the anguished John Proctor, bravely defying the witch-hunters but haunted with guilt about his own marital infidelity, Patrick O’Kane sometimes puts one uncomfortably in mind of an ageing rock star fallen on hard times with his long, lank hair and weird Irish-American accent. He does, however, become deeply moving in the later scenes.”

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“Oliver Ford Davies is absolutely terrifying as Danforth, the witch-finder in chief, with his granite-like authority and that extraordinarily compelling voice that sends shivers down the spine as it rasps, rumbles and roars. “

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“But almost all the performances are first-rate, and one leaves the theatre both shaken and deeply stirred.”

The Guardian
The Crucible, Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, London
“This seductive summer venue thrives on Shakespearean comedy and musicals. But, while both come later in the season, Timothy Sheader has boldly kicked off with Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem witch trials. Much as I applaud Sheader’s desire to stake out new territory, there is something about the size of the arena that brings out the element of spectacular melodrama lurking within Miller’s play.”

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“…in seeking to suggest the play’s roots in Greek tragedy, he reminds us how far it falls short of that ideal. His most innovative stroke is to deploy a chorus of village girls who sit either side of Jon Bausor’s rectangular wooden platform and point accusatory fingers at Salem’s supposed diabolists: the only problem is that when the girls take centre-stage and march in unison, they look like an over-drilled ensemble rather than a rabble of teenagers in a self-induced trance.”

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“Fortunately, the acting, in spite of the fitful American accents, is good. Patrick O’Kane’s Proctor, finally undone by his past association with Abigail, is suitably tormented and guilt-racked, and Emma Cunniffe brings out the puritanical coldness beneath his wife’s charity.”

The Independent
The Crucible, Open Air Theatre, London
“…judging by Timothy Sheader’s enthralling revival of Arthur Miller’s great witch-hunt play, who is to say it’s not “time up” for those Shakespearean fairies and unfunny clowns? Let’s hope not, but the development of a rigorous new epic style among the tall, swaying trees and clouds of white blossom drifting through the night air, is welcome indeed.”

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“Patrick O’Kane plays Proctor with a tremendous physical frenzy and fervour, while Emma Cunniffe gives a heartbreaking portrait of wifely stoicism. “

The Stage
The Crucible
“… a deeply effective design from Jon Bausor, that strips the setting to a bare minimum leaving the rest to Paul Keogan’s eerily atmospheric lighting design.”

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“Ultimately the team at Regent’s Park Open Air have done it again, finding a remarkable drama that to this day remains a political and cultural touchstone and adding to its brilliance with their unique setting and a superb company.”

Whatsonstage.com
The Crucible
“Timothy Sheader has not directed the play as a musical, exactly, but his staging is certainly epic, from the minute we hear the singing of girls in long skirts and Puritan bonnets coming through the tall trees and taking up their choric posts at the side of a flat wooden stage, a horizontal house front.”

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“This is a big moment in the history of the Open Air Theatre, and Sheader’s team – designer Jon Bausor, composer Nick Powell, and a company led by former RSC stalwarts Patrick Godfrey as a weather-beaten old Giles Corey and Susan Engel as a gloriously sensible Rebecca Nurse – rise to the challenge with ardour and magnificence.”