5/21/13 Review: 'The Crucible' reinvigorated at Antaeus latimes.com www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/laetcmcruciblereview20130521,0,712853.story 1/4 Membership Services Jobs Cars Real Estate Subscribe Rentals Weekly Circulars Custom Publishing Comments 0 Email Share Tweet Tweet 0 CRITIC'S CHOICE Place Ad ARTS & CULTURE LOCAL U.S. WORLD BUSINESS SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT HEALTH LIVING TRAVEL OPINION SHOP TRENDING NOW L.A. MAYOR'S RACE OKLAHOMA TORNADO APPLE TAXES VINNY DEL NEGRO IRAN ELECTION Search Review: 'The Crucible' reinvigorated at Antaeus 99 More Arts Recommended on Facebook ‑‑Topics‑‑ GO Top IRS official will invoke 5th Amendment 19,706 people recommend this. Big rig carrying fruit crashes on 210 Freeway, creates jam 31,219 people recommend this. Why USC and not a black college, Dr. Every show. Every game. Every ticket. Be the first on your street to see the show. May 21 TUE 7PM Mishal Moore with Nina Storey The Hotel Cafe – Los Angeles, CA May 21 TUE 7PM The Presets with Dragonette and Classixx Avalon Hollywood – Hollywood, CA advertisement Connect Like 468k Jodi Arias asks jury for life term; deliberations begin BREAKING PHOTOS VIDEO CRIME OBITUARIES WEATHER TRAFFIC CROSSWORDS SUDOKU HOROSCOPES APPS Recommend 99 Like 468k
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5/21/13 Review: 'The Crucible' reinvigorated at Antaeus latimes.com
Shakespearean in dimension and craft, “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller’s 1953 play about the Salemwitch trials, is inarguably a masterwork.
More arguably, it's overproduced. How, then, does a director bring new immediacy to this belovedyet familiar work — Miller's sly denunciation of the McCarthy hearings, cloaked in period garb?
Leave it to the creative team at Antaeus. The company's subtly revisionist production of the play, codirected by Armin Shimerman and Geoffrey Wade, reinvigorates the language and brings a noveldimension to Miller’s wellworn text.
The production is doublecast and multiethnic, but for Antaeus that's nothing new. And casting awoman — in this instance, effectively magisterial Ann Noble — as the Rev. John Hale, is a bold twistthat works nicely, to be sure.
But the boldest innovation is having the performers face dead front for the bulk of the action ratherthan directly addressing one another. It’s a risky, even outlandish tack that could have blunted thedrama's emotional connections. Yet considering the play's polemical nature, it’s brilliant.
After all, what is “The Crucible” but a sermon, a clarion warning against demagoguery in all its forms?By having the characters address the audience, preacherlike, the proceedings take on the immediacyof a Chautauqua tent revival.
The actors, clad in E.B. Brooks' suggestive costumes, are all able and deeply committed to the text.But there are standouts, most notably Bo Foxworth, whose moving and muscular portrayal of JohnProctor, the pragmatic farmer caught up in the madness, is the linchpin performance. Alsoexceptional is James Sutorius as Gov. Danforth, the head of the court proceedings, a brutal ideologuewhose relish in his deadly work is all the more chilling for its offhand matteroffactness.
If you feel you know “The Crucible” too well, pay it another visit. You may be surprised to find that inthe right hands the play still commands our fascination — and our unease.
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“The Crucible,” the Antaeus Company, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m.ThursdaysFridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 7. $30$34. (818) 5061983.www.antaeus.org. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.
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