Just a fortnight before Halloween, with the wind blowing through the streets of St Andrews turning brisk and cutting in anticipation of the coming winter, Mermaids stage the quintessential play of the season:
The Crucible. At this time of year, the witching hour and its terrors lurking in the dark feel imminent as I walk towards the Byre in the early evening. Beyond the weather (which is regrettably beyond their control), set designer Clara Curtis and sound technician Robert ‘Romo’ Moran immediately immerse the audience in the eerie mood of the play, building the atmosphere before the curtain even rises.
 |
ID: Imogen Griffiths as Abigail Williams and Dylan Swain as John Proctor. Credit: The Students' Association.
|
Director Sofia David’s
Crucible is cleverly recontextualised to what appears to be a religious girls’ school, an image well supported by costume designer Fatima Kirda. The costuming in this production also works hand in hand with performance to present whole characters, self-evident to the audience before they utter a single word; the meticulous design is evident in how centrally the crucifix features, if at all, in each character’s dress. Furthermore, many costumes evolve alongside their characters, though it may have been rewarding to see more intentional development in the costume and makeup of Abigail Williams, who as a character is ever-changing.
This new context inevitably falls apart somewhat after the opening scenes (are we to believe that multiple of the schoolgirls also work as maids in their free time? In their school uniforms?). Still, it draws attention to the central forces of authority, religion, and rebellion at work in the play. Despite the vulnerability of this reimagining, its symbols are Curtis’s greatest achievement. Most significantly, the characters are watched over by a large blackboard, scrawled over by the battling hands of religious and educational authority and the playful (or malicious) ones of teenage girls. Of all the set pieces, this is the most powerful, representing the sinister blurring of truth beneath it.
 |
ID: Struan Barker as Reverend Parris, Jack Dams as Reverend Hale, and Cameron Collier as Thomas Putnam. Credit: The Students' Association.
|
Of course, the performances in this show are what truly sell it. Imogen Griffiths as Abigail Williams and Iha Jha as Elizabeth Proctor, despite interacting onstage only briefly, serve as excellent foils for each other through their complex relationships with Dylan Swain’s John Proctor. Swain himself also truly embodies the character, mastering the stage space. Of note are also Jack Dams’s Reverend Hale, who captures the audience’s attention with his clear grasp of the (limited) comedy of the play, and Buster Ratcliffe Van Der Geest’s Judge Danforth, for his ability to maintain interest in moments that may otherwise drag.
 |
ID: Dylan Swain as John Proctor. Credit: The Students' Association.
|
However, there is a question of whether such a large cast is perhaps too ambitious for a student production;
The Crucible is a notoriously long play, and for a few repeated moments, actors seem to crowd the stage space with little to add to a scene. There are points of extremely effective ensemble movement, and it is these surrealist snippets which director David produces best; perhaps a less naturalistic approach may have been taken to the play at large to prevent this.
Nevertheless, this production of
The Crucible brings a new perspective to the play, honing in on the central conflict that is so often ignored to serve a larger political purpose: young womanhood, repression, and the yearning to dance in the woods.
