To Tell The Whole Truth

'CRUCIBLE' EXAMINES THE CONSEQUENCE OF LIES

By BY Kevin Kinder <a href="mailto:KEVINK@NWARKTIMES.

Posted: November 13, 2009 at 9:09 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — It comes somewhere in the third act. Elizabeth Proctor has a chance to make everything right. All she has to do, explains Kate Frank, is tell the truth.

So, what does Proctor do?

She tells what might be the only lie she’s ever told, says Frank, visiting instructor for the University of Arkansas’ drama department.

Her lie adds to those of Abigail Williams and many others from the townsfolk Arthur Miller created for his play “The Crucible,” one of the enduring favorites of American theater.

A fictionalized account of the very real Salem witch trials, Miller’s tale is about mob mentality, history and, as Frank says, the “responsibility of society to speak the truth.”

An absence of truth - except for a few stalwarts who suffer the consequences - is central to the play that will be staged beginning tonight by University Theatre. Frank will direct the eight-show run, which concludes Nov. 22.

Frank says the UA’s telling, which features a cast of 20 drama students, is a classical adaptation of the work that Miller debuted in 1953.

The play centers on the relationships between all of the townsfolk and the judicial system, but most closely follows John Proctor and Elizabeth Proctor, a married couple, and Abigail Williams, a young woman serving in the Proctor household who has had an affair with John Proctor. Later, Williams andseveral of her teenage or younger friends come down with strange afflictions and are diagnosed as having been cursed by witches. Williams then begins to name off those who have so afflicted her to town authorities, using her position of power in front of the court to her own advantage.

It is a dark and brooding production by its very nature. It is cast in a New England gothic mood, both in costuming and characterizations, as Frank notes that the central figures upon which the play was based would have very much believed in witches and witchcraft.

It also has a New England feel in terms of language.

As a dialogue-heavy show, it lends itself to using a tone that would have been around before American English as it is known today existed. Frank says that there are two dialogues that are used throughout the play, one rooted in New England country living and the other something of an interpretation of the aristocratic English that many would have learned in England.

Both are used lightly so as to not mar the context of the words, Frank says.

“It helps create the world of the play quickly.”

Also helping in that endeavor, of course, are the actors that make up the cast assembled for the production.

Those with lead roles include Rebecca Rivas as Abigail Williams, Will Grayson as John Proctor and Laura Harrell as Elizabeth Proctor.

Entertainment, Pages 26 on 11/13/2009

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