91 pages
Published 1952
Read October 24
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Back at it again with another table read event, meaning another classic play getting treated as a book for the purposes of my blog. Unlike A Midsummer Night’s Dream a couple months back, I hadn’t seen any production or adaptation of The Crucible before this table read.
You can tell this play was written by a man in the 1950s. The climactic portrayal of John Proctor as a flawed but ultimately noble man of principle elicited its share of scoffing and laughter from the table read. Miller hits upon a halfway interesting idea when Abigail goes off on the hypocrisy of every person of authority within the strict patriarchal hierarchy of her society, but then has the narrative dismiss many of her words as the rants of a love-crazed teenager, longing for a future with her married father-figure paramour.
Still, it is a well-constructed play that, within the conceptual limitations of its time and its intended audience, has some interesting things to say about structures of power and how precarious they can be when McCarthyan accusations sweep through the village.
