The Crucible - National Theatre / NT Live Jan 23 / Gielgud

Three stars for me. I found this a little slow and hard to get in to. The saving grace really are the performances, particularly Brian Gleeson, Milly Alcock, Caitlin Fitzgerald and Nia Towle.

I'm hoping to see this soon. Does anyone know where the £25 rush tickets are normally located or does it vary?

Went on Monday night, front row. No ponchos for the transfer, it seems - I regretted wearing shorts.

I really wanted to love it… but you know, there’s something barely describable, something eerie that separates good theatre from great theatre. This is just good, well done, not special. Lyndsay Turner tries do hard though (as she did with Hamlet), bless her. With the best contemporary designer, can’t-go-wrong-classics and truly remarkable acting talents she creates a production that is beautiful, but static, well-crafted yet lacking spontaneity. You watch it and you can’t quite get your head around of what exactly is missing, one or two pieces of the puzzle just wouldn’t fit and you can’t hide that even behind the spectacular water curtain (wetwetwet on the front row but GORGEOUS!)
There are gripping moments in this one there’s no point denying it but the bottom line is The Crucible shall grab you by the throat steel hard from the very beginning and never let you go. I will always come back in thoughts to The Old Vic production as a touchstone with their authenticity, wild and raw, towering the stage, making you wanna leap from your seat and fight for justice with all your might. The Crucible is meant to tear you apart in pieces by the end but all this one does is a tap on your shoulder to make sure you’re looking.
The most rememberable performances for me in here are Brian Gleeson (he made some interesting choices I’ve never seen in other Proctors, this scene when he asks to spare him the signature was soaring), Nia Towle as Marry Warren (the arch of the character is impeccably executed) and Fisayo Akinade as Reverend John Hale (his passion and persistence spot on). Millie Alcock not so much (even though she certainly looks the part), I felt in a one-note performance, some of the brightest stars just not made for the stage as brilliant as they may be on screen (Tom Hardy springs to mind) and it’s alright.

I saw this yesterday and think I enjoyed it. It was definitely more humorous than I was expecting. The opening context bit didn't quite feel necessary - I know it probably is, but maybe I just don't know enough about McCarthyism to fully appreciate it. The rain curtain while very pretty and a big spectacle on first entering the theatre seemed a bit out of place for the mid-act scene changes, more just highlighting that they weren't especially fast than actually doing anything. Nevertheless an enjoyable production and I am pleased to have seen it. Probably a 3.5 (but rounded up to a 4 for the poll).

I think that the play was written as such a studied allegory for McCarthyism in 1950s America that it would be difficult to find something as comparable in the same manner today. Certainly witch hunts exist in various forms in modern society, but none align as much with the way the Salem Witch Trials are depicted here.

Perhaps cancel culture? But it wouldn't immediately spring to mind from watching this particular production.

Or perhaps Donald Trump or Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson lying their asses off and a whole heap of people believing them and having an extremely negative effect on the world?

I took myself off to see the closing show last night. Loved it at the NT, loved it more here. I thought Brian Gleeson was just great, I thought he got a little more out of Proctor and it just felt like a more all around performance. Last time I had seen Nathan Amzi on in place of Fisayo Akinade, wow. I thought Amzi did a great job but Akinade was just fabulous, a level of humanity in Hale from much earlier on, to the point of where it felt it was just as much Hale's story as Procter's.

Alcock was fine as Abigail but Nia Towle was excellent as Mary Warren, really felt her being dragged all over the place in the trial and I took a lot more from her performance, feels much more central to the story than Abigal does.

Very glad I went back. Pretty sure it was my first time at a last night, more smiles and hugs at the end from the cast but no speeches or anything else. Despite the really hot weather, I brought my rain coat - front row still gets rain curtain, bottom of my jeans were quite damp when I got home later!