The Crucible
by Arthur Miller 

Arthur Miller’s great play The Crucible was first performed in New York in 1953. From the start it was a favourite with audiences and has rarely been out of production, somewhere in the world, ever since.

 The story is set in 1692 and tells what happens when a group of teenage girls from the Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts, which is now part of the USA, is caught dancing, in secret, in the forest on the outskirts of the village. The local parson who finds them suspects witchcraft. Two of the girls later lose consciousness and rumours start to fly. Are agents of the devil walking the streets of Salem? Is the village under attack from the forces of evil?

To save themselves a whipping, the girls try to shift the blame for their own misbehaviour onto their friends and neighbours ‘crying them out’ as witches. Their accusations are taken seriously and a witch finder is sent for. A local farmer has the truth from one of the girls but leaves it far too late to speak out. Matters take on their own awful momentum as rumour superstition and spite are allowed to run unchecked.

Arthur Miller found parallels in this story, which is based on true events, with the anti- communist witch-hunt conducted by the House Un- American Activities Committee under the Chairmanship of Senator McCarthy in the USA in the 1950’s. Some may also find in it an allegory of the times in which we live to-day.