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5/21/13 Review: 'The Crucible' reinvigorated at Antaeus latimes.com
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Review: 'The Crucible' reinvigorated at Antaeus99
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5/21/13 Review: 'The Crucible' reinvigorated at Antaeus latimes.com
www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/laetcmcruciblereview20130521,0,712853.story 2/4
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By F. Kathleen FoleyMay 21, 2013 , 1:24 p.m.
Shakespearean in dimension and craft, “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller’s 1953 play about the Salemwitch trials, is inarguably a masterwork.
More arguably, it's overproduced. How, then, does a director bring new immediacy to this belovedyet familiar work — Miller's sly denunciation of the McCarthy hearings, cloaked in period garb?
Leave it to the creative team at Antaeus. The company's subtly revisionist production of the play, codirected by Armin Shimerman and Geoffrey Wade, reinvigorates the language and brings a noveldimension to Miller’s wellworn text.
The production is doublecast and multiethnic, but for Antaeus that's nothing new. And casting awoman — in this instance, effectively magisterial Ann Noble — as the Rev. John Hale, is a bold twistthat works nicely, to be sure.
But the boldest innovation is having the performers face dead front for the bulk of the action ratherthan directly addressing one another. It’s a risky, even outlandish tack that could have blunted thedrama's emotional connections. Yet considering the play's polemical nature, it’s brilliant.
After all, what is “The Crucible” but a sermon, a clarion warning against demagoguery in all its forms?By having the characters address the audience, preacherlike, the proceedings take on the immediacyof a Chautauqua tent revival.
The actors, clad in E.B. Brooks' suggestive costumes, are all able and deeply committed to the text.But there are standouts, most notably Bo Foxworth, whose moving and muscular portrayal of JohnProctor, the pragmatic farmer caught up in the madness, is the linchpin performance. Alsoexceptional is James Sutorius as Gov. Danforth, the head of the court proceedings, a brutal ideologuewhose relish in his deadly work is all the more chilling for its offhand matteroffactness.
If you feel you know “The Crucible” too well, pay it another visit. You may be surprised to find that inthe right hands the play still commands our fascination — and our unease.
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“The Crucible,” the Antaeus Company, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m.ThursdaysFridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 7. $30$34. (818) 5061983.www.antaeus.org. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.
Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times
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Alexandra Goodman and Bo Foxworth in 'The Crucible' at the Antaeus Company. (FacetPhotography.com)
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5/21/13 Review: 'The Crucible' reinvigorated at Antaeus latimes.com
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