Play by Arthur Miller
Directed by Lori Reed
Winner of the Tony Award for the Best Play of 1953, it is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1692 – 1693. It is Arthur Miller’s allegory for the McCarthy era witch hunts against perceived Communists in America. Originating with a presidential executive order, the “red scare” became an obsession, ripping through all aspects of American life. It was a campaign of fear that turned people against each other, destroying lives, careers and friendships in its wake. Arthur Miller's The Crucible stands as a rallying cry against all kinds of hysteria in public life, disinformation and the spreading of false “facts”. 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.