The Crucible
PRODUCTION CONCEPT
RESEARCH
Why I Wrote “The Crucible” ~ Arthur Miller (New Yorker, Oct 1996)
Artistic Direction
● Hollywood film release = Ironic
● 1964: 20 yrs post war, Harold Cluman, director of “Incident at Vichy” showed the cast
a film of a Hitler speech - gives a sense of Nazi period where the play took place.
● ‘“The Crucible” was an act of desperation.’ - fascism, anti-semitism.
● Religion: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” - there had to be witches in the world
or the Bible lied.
● Language: rich and plain: “The Lord doth terrible things amongst us, by lengthening
the chain of the roaring lion in an extraordinary manner, so that the devil is come
down in great wrath” ~ Deodat Lawson (had to flow freely off US actors’ tongues).
● Themes: illicit sexuality, fear of supernatural, political manipulation.
● Settings:
○ Small children accusing adults of sexual abuse
○ Political eg. Mao’s China, Stalin’s Russia, Pinochet’s Chile
Miller’s Message
● Inspiration for actors - Senator McCarthy: truculent sidewalk, brawler’s snarl, cat’s
eyes, sneering villain, self-aware performer, straight faced while juicy threat-shtick.
● Autobio: ‘Timebends’ - wrote screenplay ‘The Hook’ on union corruption in Brooklyn
waterfront - Harry Cohn, head of Columbia pictures, showed it to FBI Cohn and
asked him to substitute gangsters murdering their enemies with Communists.
○ Cohn: “The minute we try to make this script pro-American you pull out.”
● Morality: “a clear moral outcry could still spring even from an ambiguously
unblemished soul.”
● Paradox: guilty had to officially sign in “the Devil’s book” - Faustian agreement to
hand soul to Devil = ultimate insult to God + can’t be undone.
‘The Crucible’ Context
● Reading: Studies witchcraft trials in college + 1867 study by Charles W.Upham
(mayor of Salem) showed personal relations of participants in tragedy.
● Reading: Report by Reverend Samuel Parris (a chief investigator) reported how she
offered to ‘strike’ Procter but only ‘touched Procter’s hood very lightly’ before she
‘cried out her fingers, her fingers, her fingers burned…”
○ Deduced that Elizabeth Proctor was the orphaned Abigail’s mistress - John
Proctor slept with Abigail who was dismissed to appease Elizabeth.
● Related to John Proctor as the sinner with ‘paralysing personal guilt’ as his own
marriage of 12 years was unstable.
● 1 yr to write - ‘Death of a Salesman’ - boycotted by American Legion/Jaycees + “All
My Sons” - Catholic War Veterans stopped Army theatrical groups performing.
© 2024 Grades Express
PRODUCTION CONCEPT
RESEARCH
Why I Wrote “The Crucible” ~ Arthur Miller (New Yorker, Oct 1996)
Artistic Direction
● Hollywood film release = Ironic
● 1964: 20 yrs post war, Harold Cluman, director of “Incident at Vichy” showed the cast
a film of a Hitler speech - gives a sense of Nazi period where the play took place.
● ‘“The Crucible” was an act of desperation.’ - fascism, anti-semitism.
● Religion: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” - there had to be witches in the world
or the Bible lied.
● Language: rich and plain: “The Lord doth terrible things amongst us, by lengthening
the chain of the roaring lion in an extraordinary manner, so that the devil is come
down in great wrath” ~ Deodat Lawson (had to flow freely off US actors’ tongues).
● Themes: illicit sexuality, fear of supernatural, political manipulation.
● Settings:
○ Small children accusing adults of sexual abuse
○ Political eg. Mao’s China, Stalin’s Russia, Pinochet’s Chile
Miller’s Message
● Inspiration for actors - Senator McCarthy: truculent sidewalk, brawler’s snarl, cat’s
eyes, sneering villain, self-aware performer, straight faced while juicy threat-shtick.
● Autobio: ‘Timebends’ - wrote screenplay ‘The Hook’ on union corruption in Brooklyn
waterfront - Harry Cohn, head of Columbia pictures, showed it to FBI Cohn and
asked him to substitute gangsters murdering their enemies with Communists.
○ Cohn: “The minute we try to make this script pro-American you pull out.”
● Morality: “a clear moral outcry could still spring even from an ambiguously
unblemished soul.”
● Paradox: guilty had to officially sign in “the Devil’s book” - Faustian agreement to
hand soul to Devil = ultimate insult to God + can’t be undone.
‘The Crucible’ Context
● Reading: Studies witchcraft trials in college + 1867 study by Charles W.Upham
(mayor of Salem) showed personal relations of participants in tragedy.
● Reading: Report by Reverend Samuel Parris (a chief investigator) reported how she
offered to ‘strike’ Procter but only ‘touched Procter’s hood very lightly’ before she
‘cried out her fingers, her fingers, her fingers burned…”
○ Deduced that Elizabeth Proctor was the orphaned Abigail’s mistress - John
Proctor slept with Abigail who was dismissed to appease Elizabeth.
● Related to John Proctor as the sinner with ‘paralysing personal guilt’ as his own
marriage of 12 years was unstable.
● 1 yr to write - ‘Death of a Salesman’ - boycotted by American Legion/Jaycees + “All
My Sons” - Catholic War Veterans stopped Army theatrical groups performing.
© 2024 Grades Express
