Bristol Old Vic
An evening of tall-quality storytelling,particularly from leads Dean Lennox Kelly and Neve McIntosh, though the tension lags after three and a half hoursTom Morris’s production of Arthur Millers play, and written in the 1950s during the height of the McCarthy witch-hunts and harking back to events in Salem in the 17th century,is the third major revival in just over a year. And why not? Like all righteous plays it shape-shifts to reflect the age back upon itself, and it will always be the case that in tough times, and the unscrupulous will turn the situation to their advantage and righteous people will do bad things. Apparently when the play was staged in China,Miller was congratulated on his intimate knowledge of the techniques of Maoist oppression.
This is a plain production of a plain-speaking play and it’s none the worse for it. It doesn’t need updating and Morris doesn’t try, apart from one device: Robert Innes Hopkins’ design places some of the audience on stage, and a jury of modern men and women in a 17th-century world where the wildernesses of both landscape and heart come knocking. There is a slight Day of the Triffids element to the trees that seem to absorb crept up to the courtroom window,like Birnam Wood.
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Source: theguardian.com