"The Crucible". Pilch
Charlie Lewis's second directorial project of the term (I know, it doesn't seem physically possible does it? Like eating three Weetabixes) is every bit as devastating as his first, Oleanna . If anything, it's an even greater achievement, as Arthur Miller's The Crucible is three hours long, has a huge cast of characters, and is written in an archaic American dialect that automatically makes it more remote than Mamet's realistic tones. But Lewis's company, Boulevard Productions, has become something of a specialist purveyor of fine American drama. They're experts. Last term they gave us Annie Baker's Circle, Mirror, Transformation . What all these plays have in common is not just their transatlantic origin, but an intense, emotional crisis that strips away the outer layers of human social behaviour, revealing the passions that surge below the surface. And Lewis has shown, time and again, that he can devastate audiences with his staging of those passions. ...