The Crucible bedazzles and bewitches

BY Amina Zaineldine
@a_zaineldine

A simple wooden set.

Dim, ominous lighting and whispering voices.

“The Devil’s loose in Salem,” they say.

From the very first moment to the very last, the audience at AUC’s Malak Gabr Theater is spellbound.

Minute by minute, the events of Arthur Miller’s modern classic, The Crucible, unfold before the audience’s eyes.

Set in 17th Century Salem, Massachusetts, the play tells the story of a band of young girls, with the spiteful Abigail Williams as their ringleader, who start the rumor that there are witches among the townsfolk.

By pretending to confess that they had once been witches, the girls are vindicated and able to accuse whomever they wished ill of the crime. Abigail had had an affair with her former employer, farmer, John Proctor, and therefore is wife Elizabeth had turned her out. Ever since Abigail has been out for revenge.

When she accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft, Reverend Samuel Parris, the minister of Salem, rejoices in a chance to criticise John Proctor, a farmer with whom he had a bad personal relationship, before the town’s court.

The town falls into chaos as vicious grudges and the manipulation of faith and fear for personal and political gain ultimately lead to the most sinister consequences.

Published in the 1950s, the play is a fictionalized account of the Salem Witch Trials. Miller was making his literary commentary on the 50s McCarthy era in the U.S., where brutal investigations were carried out against accused communists, including Miller himself.

It is proving an entirely too difficult task to find anything to criticise in this production. From Frank Bradley’s exceptional directing, to the delicately relevant choice of play, to the moving performances of the cast, the prodigious talent and amount of work and effort which was put into every detail is self-evident.

Perhaps the best place to start would be with the scenery and lighting, which were designed by AUC theater professor Stancil Campbell. After 15 years of being a pillar in the university’s theater program, Campbell will retire at the end of the year.

But clearly he would not do so without giving us a final piece of work to marvel at. Whether it was the realistic sky color in the background, the menacing, ever-present firewood, or the simple yet elegant wooden furniture, nothing was missing.

The acting was remarkable. The presence of two professionals in the cast raised the bar, and the student actors rose to meet it. Waleed Hammad and Jason Will, who appeared in the play as Reverend John Hale and Deputy Governor Danforth are both adjunct professors of acting at AUC and they left their mark on the production, both as mentors and as actors.

Though it is not easy to choose, the most noteworthy of all the actors were Bassem El-Kahki, who played the leading role of John Proctor, Lauren Clark as the Barbados slave Tituba, Yousif Najem as Reverend Samuel Parris and Dalia Shawky as Abigail Williams.

El-Kahki delivered a heart-rending performance and managed to brilliantly demonstrate Proctor’s courage and wake the empathy of the spectators. Najem’s performance was authentic and his language articulation and vocal expression were excellent. Clark, too, evoked sympathy in the audience in her poignant part in the first act.

Shawky and her gang of vindictive young girls did an incredible job at acting the part of being possessed. The physical and vocal contortions were clearly the product of great directing and sent shivers down the audience’s spines.
All of these performances were augmented by the high-quality, historically accurate and aesthetically pleasing costumes, which were designed by AUC theater professor Jeanne Arnold.

It was a thoroughly entertaining and moving evening, and the three hours passed by in a flash.

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