The Old Lyme Players, comprising students from Lyme-Old Lyme High School with an active interest in the performing arts, present two performances of “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller this weekend. Opening night was Friday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. and the second — and final — performance is tonight, Saturday, Nov. 19, with the curtain again rising at 7 p.m.
The lead roles are played by Chris Kirk and Shannon Nosal with supporting roles by Maria Donato, Brennen Griffin, Ben Jackson and Cora Koprowski. A notable senior in the performance is Bailey Knickerson.
All are welcome. Admission is $8 for students and seniors, and $12 for adults. Tickets are available in advance by calling the high school at 860.434.1651 or at the door.
Wikipedia notes that Miller wrote ‘The Crucible’ in 1953, “as a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692-93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government ostracized people for being communists.
Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.[2]
The play was first performed at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953, starring E.G. Marshall, Beatrice Straight and Madeleine Sherwood. Miller felt that this production was too stylized and cold and the reviews for it were largely hostile (although The New York Times noted “a powerful play [in a] driving performance”).[3] Nonetheless, the production won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play.[4]
A year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic.”