ARTHUR Miller’s classic play The Crucible bursts into life on the stage of Mandurah Performing Arts Centre next week when the audience will be taken back to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692.
It was the time of the infamous Salem witch trials and a time when paranoia, hysteria and deceit gripped the Puritan towns of New England.
Act 1 opens with Salem’s Minister, the Reverend Parris, watching over his sick daughter Betty and wondering what is wrong with her.
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READ NOWThe entire town is buzzing with rumours that she is sick because of witchcraft.
Rev. Parris has seen both Betty and his niece Abigail dancing in the forest with his slave Tituba the night before.
That evening in the forest, he also saw a cauldron and a frog leaping into it.
When first questioned Abigail denies she or Betty are involved in witchcraft but admits they were dancing in the forest with Tituba.
Abigail lives in the Parris household because her parents are dead.
She used to live at the home of John and Elizabeth Proctor but was asked to leave for some mysterious reason.
Spines will tingle with the dark, chilling madness and superstition which unfolds as the historic, fictional story based on documentation of the trials is told.
The Crucible is directed by Karen Francis.
THE ESSENTIALS
WHAT: The Crucible.
WHERE: Mandurah Performing Arts Centre (Fish Trap Theatre).
WHEN: August 15, 17, 18 with a matinee on August 18.