Stage: Miller’s tale

Classic American drama The Crucible on the big screen

With the price of West End theatre tickets as they are, and the added cost of travelling there and back, a drink in the interval perhaps and of course a bit to eat, even if it’s only a sandwich – it can all add up to a scary sum.

Three cheers then for the continuing growth of cinema presentations of some of the best theatre, opera, ballet and classical music that is on offer at cinemas.

These days you can watch opera digitally streamed from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the pick of the Festival from Brighton, top performances form the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera House and great productions from The National Theatre. They offer an easy and affordable alternative and bring the very best to our doorstep, with productions of the highest quality filmed for cinema to a very exacting standard.

Of course a cinema presentation will never have the full atmosphere of attending a live performance but it will certainly go a long wait to satisfying that need to see productions that are often inaccessible for reasons of distance or cost.

Coming to cinemas this December is Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Written in the 1950s, Miller’s play about the Salem Witch trials of 1692 and 1693 is a partly finctionalised account of a true story that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. It is also an allegorical work that reflected the extroardinary workings of American Government that became know as McCarthyism. Arthur Miller 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 that he had attended. In 1953 the play won the Tony Award for Best Play, and has since gone on to be regarded as one of the greatest American dramas and is a respected educational text around the world.

John Richardson, Producer at The Old Vic has said this of this much acclaimed production; “Yaël Farber’s mesmerising five star production of The Crucible is one of the most successful and most acclaimed in The Old Vic’s history. We are excited to finally be sharing one of the theatrical events of a decade with audiences across the country, thanks to our friends at DigitalTheatre.com and CinemaLive. Arthur Miller’s powerful and legendary work is truly a play for our times.”

Richard Armitage, who will be continuing his role as Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, in cinemas in December, excels as John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s classic American drama, brought vividly to life in this visceral production.

‘A production of electrifying intensity.’
★★★★★ The Daily Telegraph
‘It is operatic, it is immense.’
★★★★★ Time Out
‘An extraordinary production.’
★★★★★ The Guardian

Cineworld Brighton: 4 & 8 December
Dukes at Komedia, Brighton: 4 & 28 December