Classic theatre, but nothing new

Arthur Miller's The Crucible is a masterclass in political drama, and the Abbey production is well staged and broadly well acted. But is it good enough for the National Theatre, asks Colin Murphy

Why this play, why now? Fiach MacConghail has staked his claim for a politically relevant Abbey Theatre; The Crucible is the most political of plays. So what are he and director Patrick Mason trying to say? Or is it enough for the Abbey simply to put on great plays, even if the film versions can be rented at Xtravision?

The Crucible is a great play, a masterclass in political drama, and the principle virtue of this production is that it lets the play do the work. Conor Murphy's clean, vacant stage, Patrick Mason's crisp choreography and an able cast allow Arthur Miller's words to ring out (and, in the new Abbey auditorium, they do ring out).

In the archives of the courthouse in Salem,  Massachusetts, in the early-1950s, Arthur Miller found a transcript from the witch trials of the 1690s. In it, he found both an analogy for the anti-communist mania of his own time, and the stuff of a human drama. His play is about the potency of hysteria: how justice may bend to the fears of the crowd and, once bent, raises the stakes and further stokes those fears. But it is also about the attempt by some to stand up to the mob and its justice, and how their own weakness may compromise their fight for what they know is right.

It is in this that the play is more interesting, and this production stronger. The bad guys – the girls who cry “Witch!”, and the judges – are too obviously bad. Miller has not written doubt into their characters, and there is no attempt made to introduce it into the performances. They risk being cartoon-like, and occasionally in this production, that risk is realised.

The good guys, however, are troubled and flawed characters; there is much more for an actor to get stuck into. Declan Conlon as John Proctor and Cathy Belton as his wife are a fine double-act; their scenes together are riveting. Peter Gowen, as the minister who rejects the court, and Gemma Reeves, as the girl who rejects her former conspirators, are also excellent.

But this is an ensemble that never pulls together, and a production that feels like it is yet (on opening night) some way off its pace. It leaves me with the sense that director Patrick Mason concentrated on staging the play rather than directing the actors. The production looks and moves very well, but the actors seem left to do their own thing and, while some prosper, the ensemble falters and the pitch is erratic.

Ruth Negga plays the central role of Abigail, the young woman who leads the others in denouncing witchcraft. Negga has plenty of presence and charisma, but there is something missing here – it may be how she has been directed, it may be a lack of stagecraft, it may be that the hysterics of the role now appear clumsy and dated. But apart from one brief (and crucial) scene with Conlon, the sexual politics of her role, and of the play, are under-explored.

The production is designed in blacks and greys, and the actors largely use their own accents. The effect is to give it a neutral setting, rather than a specifically Irish one. The great theme that rages through The Crucible must resonate in a country where the Supreme Court recently sent a man to prison for breaking a law that didn't exist, apparently on the basis of an outcry funnelled by Joe Duffy's radio programmes. Bertie Ahern might feel it has something to say about trial by media. Members of the clergy might find within it insights into the plight of those wrongly accused of child abuse and forced to step aside publicly from ministry. It would be naff to try to relocate the production to contemporary Ireland, but other than letting the words speak for themselves, there doesn't seem to be any attempt to find a new context for the play, or to market it in a way that exploits its contemporaneity. This is a good piece of theatre – but is that enough for the National Theatre?

Left to right: Phelim Drew, Mark D'Aughton, Peter Hanly, Ruth Negga, Suzy Lawlor, Laura Jane Laughlin and Gemma Reeves in The Crucible, at the Abbey Theatre from 30 May to 7 July. Picture by Colm Hogan