The Show, August 20, 2012

(The Ensemble from Soulpepper's The Crucible, photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann)

It is extraordinarily sad that you do not need to know anything about the McCarthy Hearings (The House Un-American Activities Committee - or HUAC) of the 1940s and 50s to be terrified by The Crucible. After all, it was thought, the play spoke in allegorical terms about the Communist and Gay witch-hunts by presenting a story about the real witch-hunts of Puritan Salem, Massachusetts. For almost two decades the work was treated like a museum piece, so specific were the allusions.

Then something happened...call it 9-11 or the Rise of the Right or the Spectre of Terrorism but suddenly governments all around the globe were - quite simply - controlling by fear. The world - in chaotic times - was rendered in terms people could understand; indeed needed to understand: Us vs. Them. The Muslims are the witches. Blacks (soon to be disenfranchised as voters yet again in Republican America) are the witches. Obama is the devil. Pussy Riot are evil hooligans. And, closer to home, Catherine Frid is pro-terrorist.

And, tragically, Arthur Miller's play speaks loudly. Frighteningly loudly.