The Western Stage in Salinas is presenting a new production of
the Tony Award-winning play
”
The Crucible
”
with performances through Nov. 24 at the Hartnell College
Theatre.
The Western Stage in Salinas is presenting a new production of the Tony Award-winning play “The Crucible” with performances through Nov. 24 at the Hartnell College Theatre.
In this powerful drama about the Puritan purge of witchcraft in old Salem, Mass., a whole town is aroused and 19 men and women go to the gallows for being possessed by the Devil. They are good men and women – upright, hardworking, compassionate and God-fearing.
The story focuses upon a young farmer, his wife and a young servant girl who maliciously causes the wife’s arrest for witchcraft. The farmer brings the girl to court to admit the lie and the trial scene is a terrifying scene that depicts the results of of bigotry and deceit. Instead of saving his wife, the farmer finds himself accused, imprisoned and condemned.
This modern classic is the story of a dark episode in American history. Almost everyone knows that it was written, in part, to cast light on the paranoia and lies used by Senator Joseph McCarthy and many know that arguments about the statements made by Elia Kazan to HUAC resulted in the blacklisting of many artists.
The play speaks to more than the Puritan foundations of our society, the madness of the ’50s and its impact on today.
It has been argued that Miller’s drama is not an apt parable for McCarthyism because there were no witches to justify the paranoia of Puritan society, whereas there were (and despite claims that the U.S. defeated and destroyed Communism by accelerating the collapse of the Soviet Union) and there still are Communists, some of whom declared themselves enemies not merely of capitalism but also of democracy.
This argument does not hold up because Miller pointed out that although Communism was becoming increasingly popular around the world, the Communist party in the United States was smaller than that in any other Western power. The motivation for anti-Communist paranoia was, of course, that we had recently ended a world war and felt ourselves (with much justification) to be on the brink of a new one.
Admission is $17 for adults, $14 for seniors over 65 and $12 for students,military personnel and viewers under 25. For information and reservations, call (831) 755-6816.
