CAST

Abigail Williams - Nessa Wrafter
Mary Warren - Sophie Henley
Mercy Lewis - Gwendolen von Einsiedel
Susanna Walcott - Sarah Zeiser
Betty Parris - Ellie Graham
Elizabeth Proctor - Clea Langton
Ann Putnam - Sue Cockburn-Bowyer
Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Good - Anne Greenslade
Tituba - Melissa James
John Proctor - Patrick Pilcher
Reverend Hale - Ben Swann
Reverend Parris - Garth Wright
Deputy Governor Danforth - Mike Knapp
Thomas Putnam - Richard Williams
Judge Hathorne - Will Hartley
Marshall Herrick - Tim Pierce
Ezekiel Cheever - Allon Sylvain
Giles Corey - Bill Boyd
Francis Nurse - James Campbell

CREW

Directed by Callum O'Neill
Produced by Phil Matcham
Asst. Producers: Autumn Widdoes, Rachel Goldsmith
Stage Managers: Sukhraj Dhillon, Sarah Hiscock

Set Design: Tim Haywood
Costumes: Tim Haywood and Rachel Goldsmith
Lighting Design: Hugh Allison
Lighting Operators: Sally McElhayer, Alistair Macdonald
Artwork: Harriet Russell
Photography: Omer Bas
Publicity: Michael Hubbard
Box Office: Tammy Mitchell

PRODUCTION NOTES

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Nessa Wrafter as Abigail Williams

The Crucible, one of the 20th Century's best-known plays, uses the 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witch trials as an allegory for equally terrifying events in more recent times.

The trials were based solely on the accusations of one girl who claimed to have witnessed a number of Salem's residents consorting with Satan. Based on her evidence, alleged witches were hanged or pressed to death.

The late Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953 to highlight McCarthyism, a movement led by Senator Joe McCarthy and his House Committee on Un-American Activities.

McCarthyism centred on the hunting down and exposing of suspected communists. Those found guilty in McCarthy's witch-hunt were not executed, but many suffered irreparable damage to their reputations and careers. Miller himself was targeted.

The Crucible is a powerfully dramatic play that speaks to anyone who has lived in a society where the questioning of authority and of general opinion leads to rejection and punishment, and is as relevant today as when it was first staged.