The Crucible

Arthur Miller’s searing parable of intolerance, vengeance, moral courage and mass hysteria, The Crucible, is destined to resonate for centuries to come. Set during the Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600s and using the names of actual participants, The Crucible is universally seen as an allegory of the McCarthy era and the demand to “name names” during the anti-Communist witch hunts of the 1950s. But the moral of the story is far more universal. There are moments in the play that hit today’s audience with the force of a breaking news bulletin. Barely 50 years after it was written, Miller’s play has assumed the stature of a much older masterpiece. “Its wisdom seems ancient, its scope Shakespearean.”