Excitement is certainly mounting this week as we prepare for the senior production of Arthur Miller’s classic play, The Crucible, to be performed next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The shocking events that took place in Salem during the 17th Century were used by Arthur Miller to provide a parallel to the situation in America during the early 1950s when Senator Joe McCarthy sparked a modern witch hunt against the so-called communists he claimed were working in State Departments. Just like the accusers in Salem, he had no real evidence to support his claims and the resulting paranoia and questioning by the House Committee on Un-American Activities led to job losses, bankruptcy and worse, with eleven suicides caused by the impact of being ‘named’.
This is a challenging but exciting text and is studied by both Drama and English students, so was an obvious choice for our production this year. The students have worked incredibly hard developing their characters, learning songs and exploring accents. As you can see Mr Janes and Mr Baum have been busy creating a fabulous set to help conjure the dark, sombre atmosphere of 17th Century Salem. Tickets are on sale from the Box Office for the shows that each begin at 7pm.
