6/25/2023 0 Comments Brendan cowell the crucibleThe only bulwark against such a degradation of justice is for people of principle to stand up and be counted. In this recent version, directed for the London stage by Lyndsey Turner, we see the twin elements of hysteria spreading contagiously in a small community, and the way in which people try to game the system to their own advantage. The idea that denunciation – once unleashed – rapidly corrupts the idea of a fair hearing is one that, alas, has enduring relevance. Whilst no one at the time was in any doubt what Miller was referring to (he himself was summoned and refused to ‘give names’), the play has wider implications. That star chamber became a modern day witch hunt and it ruined many careers for those who were denounced as Communists in a rabidly anti-communist era of the 1940s and 1950s. The context that Miller was writing in, contained the recent spate of investigations under the notorious HUAC (House of Unamerican Activities). In The Crucible, American Playwright Arthur Miller fashioned a work that quickly became a modern classic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |