The Crucible (Penguin Plays)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140481389 ISBN 13: 9780140481389

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1976

A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community
 
The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft—and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village.

First produced in 1953, at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic of witch-hunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil. It is a play that is not only relentlessly suspenseful and vastly moving but that compels readers to fathom their hearts and consciences in ways that only the greatest theater ever can.

"A drama of emotional power and impact" —New York Post

From the Inside Flap:

Richard Dreyfuss and Stacy Keach star in this full-cast performance of Arthur Miller's classic The Crucible, a central work in the canon of American drama.

In the rigid theocracy of Salem, Massachusetts, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town. In a searing portrait of a community engulfed by panic - with ruthless prosecutors, and neighbors eager to testify against neighbor - The Crucible famously mirrors the anti-Communist hysteria that held the United States in its grip in the 1950's. A Tony Award Winner for Best Play.

An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring:

Richard Dreyfuss as Reverend John Hale

Stacy Keach as John Proctor

Ed Begley Jr. as Thomas Putnam

Michael York as Reverend Parris

Hector Elizondo as Giles Corey

Irene Aranga as Mercy Lewis

Rene Auberjonois as Deputy Governor Danforth

Georgia Brown as Rebecca Nurse

Jack Coleman as Marshal Herrick

Bud Cort as Ezekiel Cheever

Judyann Elder as Tituba

Fionnula Flanagan as Elizabeth Proctor

Ann Hearne as Susanna Walcott

Carol Kane as Mary Warren

Anna Sophie Loewenberg as Betty Parris

Marian Mercer as Mrs. Ann Putnam

Franklyn Seales as Judge Hathorne

Madolyn Smith as Abigail Williams

Joe Spano as Francis Nurse

Directed by Martin Jenkins.

About the Author:

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915 and studied at the University of Michigan. His plays include All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1963), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972) and The American Clock. He has also written two novels, Focus (1945), and The Misfits, which was filmed in 1960, and the text for In Russia (1969), Chinese Encounters (1979), and In the Country (1977), three books of photographs by his wife, Inge Morath. More recent works include a memoir, Timebends (1987), and the plays The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), Broken Glass (1993), which won the Olivier Award for Best Play of the London Season, and Mr. Peter's Connections (1998). His latest book is On Politics and the Art of Acting. Miller was granted with the 2001 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and in 1949 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.