St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity is hosting the national premiere of The Old Vic’s The Crucible. Sandra Aquilina interviews actress Anna Madeley about the play’s disturbing relevance to today’s world.

In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, it is John Proctor who ostensibly steals the show. He is the male character over whom two women contend, the eye around which the storm rages, the character whose fate the plots follows most closely.

In The Old Vic’s version, too, the poster is dominated by his image, played by Richard Armitage, most recently seen as King of the Dwarves in The Hobbit.

While John Proctor is the hero of the plot, his wife Elizabeth provides the story with complicated nuances and shades. Played by the English actress Anna Madeley, known for In Bruges, Elizabeth moves with restraint in a play where sensuality and hystericism abound.

The plot – with its disturbing contemporary relevance – is well-known. In a small, tight-knit community in Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls is caught dancing in the woods.

The situation unleashes a series of events where sensuality and repression, greed and jealousy, religious fervour and mindless persecution combine to tear the community apart.

At the Old Vic actress Samantha Colley played the character of Abigail Williams while Maltese-born Marama Corlett also formed part of the cast.

Following recent international events, The Crucible’s themes resonate with fresh force. As Madeley points out: “There is greed, judgement, fear and joy and there are families, authority figures, strangers and neighbours among many other things. People haven’t changed much in time.

“And so, the psychology behind people’s behaviour in the play is completely recognisable to us today. And, I believe, will be for a long time yet. For this reason, I think The Crucible will always resonate.”

While working on the play, she says, lots of stories would strike the cast for their relevance. Modern-day reports of group female hysteria; stories coming from the war in Syria; tales from the Holocaust... Director Yael Farber introduced a lot of the cast to Primo Levi’s If this is a man and The Truce.

“Wherever people are operating from a place of fear and judgement, I believe you can see a resonance,” she says.

“What happens when the system takes over and we are not allowed to question it? What happens in a world where to admit you were wrong is too dangerous a thing to do? I am sure we can all see resonances in those questions. I suspect that whenever The Crucible is being performed there will be resonances with current events.” In such a context, Elizabeth Proctor stands out for her maturity and moving restraint.

“I found Elizabeth to be an extraordinary woman,” says Madeley. “I don’t think I have ever played someone who had such integrity in the face of the ultimate threat of execution.I was intrigued that she seemed to be a great listener and an observer with a strong mind.

“I found her ability to search her soul and bravely confess in order to find peace within herself incredibly moving. It was very humbling to spend time with someone who had truthfully contemplated their own flaws.

Whenever The Crucible is being performed there will be resonances with current events

“The preparation that goes into such a role is difficult to explain,” she says.

“I can’t sum up all the work and thinking we did for weeks in a paragraph and it is also true that once in performance new ideas still occur to you. You hear lines anew. You never stop, really.”

The role came at an interesting time for Madeley, a few months after having her first child.

“This opened the door of understanding for me into the realities of day-to-day life for Elizabeth. What it really means to be ill after having a child. The toll it would have taken on the Proctors’ relationship.

“The strength it must have taken to look after three children at the same time as being unwell. And all this in a world where you have to make everything from scratch. Boil your water, chop your wood, kill for your dinner.”

Director Farber and movement director Imogen Knight did a lot of work with the cast to help create the community and think about the individual characters’ places within it.

“We explored the politics and hierarchy of the community and how it was intertwined with their religion, their daily routines and rituals.”

She explains that, in thinking about the rules and etiquette of their community, it heightened the sense of what would be considered inappropriate or risky behaviour.

“Without judging, we wanted to be clear about the different roles and status that men and women would hold both within the home and in public. Once we were able to have a sense of how this community worked together it helped reveal what was at stake for everyone once it all began to be destroyed.”

At the end of it all, The Crucible is, of course, a great story. Having worked in theatre, film and TV, Madeley knows this well. “Revealing stories are at the heart of it all. Great scripts. Fascinating journeys.”

In terms of working in the different media, it all bring exciting challenges, she says. But at the point of overlap are some elements of acting – like being truthful – that work everywhere. But then, extending from that, each medium demands different skills.

“You are forever learning, as an actor, how best to tell your story. Every job brings new experiences that feed your work in the future. The thrill is in the detail. You can never get it ‘right’. You are always reaching and trying.

“Yael describes it brilliantly as ‘the slippery pig’. You are forever chasing it and every now and then you catch it. But, just as you start to feel satisfied, it slips out of your arms and you have to chase it again!”

The Old Vic’s The Crucible premieres exclusively today at St James Cavalier, with encores on various dates throughout February.

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