Set in Salem in 1692, The Crucible by Arthur Miller traces the moral dilemma of John Proctor (Oliver Tillard), whose adulterous affair with Abigail Williams (Jessica Swinton), before the play opens, leads to a horrifying denouement. Abigail, in drinking 'a charm to kill John Proctor's wife', sets in motion a train of events that 'have nought to do with witchcraft' but a lot to do with 'vengeance', guilt, pride, terror, and ultimately the desire for self-preservation at any price. For only a few, love, loyalty and truth prevails.
An extremely difficult play for any actors, the Fifth Form cast performed with extraordinary maturity, sweeping the audience along with the powerful emotions they portrayed. Ollie Tillard masterfully presented John Proctor's guilt, his passionate concern for his 'good name' and his final self-belief. He was supported in the rôle by Emma Lambie (Elizabeth Proctor), whose anger, fear and final forgiveness was utterly convincing. Indeed there was hardly a dry eye in the house as the final candle, symbolising Proctor's life, was extinguished.
Jessica Swinton, as the manipulative Abigail, led the other girls in their hysterical accusations of the townswomen, with horrifying conviction. They took the lead from Tituba's (Rebecca Collins) terrified 'confession' of trafficking with the devil. Harry Gow, as Parris, searched desperately for any one to blame but himself and Tom Antonio did an excellent job as the naïve Hale, zealously questing for 'the devil's marks.' Victoria Graham drew attention to the separation of Mary from the other characters, right from the opening scene, and revealed tellingly the difficulty of standing up for the truth in the face of a death sentence, whilst Danforth (Ian Majcher), dominated the stage with his effective pauses and terrifying stare, determined not to show any mercy, which might be misconstrued as weakness. With each of these, John's fate is sealed and each symbolically took a turn in blowing out the candles one by one.
The emotional power of many of the scenes was at least in part generated by the almost cinematic effect of the soundtrack, blending raw electric guitar with more lyrical orchestration, guiding the audience in the emotional shifts of mood. The timing of this and the varied pace of the scenes was superbly controlled. Although some lines were cut, the addition of the opening witchcraft scene, Giles death and Proctor's death using symbolic mime and dance contributed greatly to the emotive nature of the production.