Scottish Ballet in The Crucible

Scottish Ballet has been touring their version of the Arthur Miller classic…

Marge Hendrick & Evan Loudon in ‘The Crucible’. © Peter James Mueller, taken at the 2023 Spoleto Fest.

Scottish Ballet
The Crucible
★★★★★
Glasgow, Theatre Royal
22 May 2025
scottishballet.co.uk
www.atgtickets.com/Glasgow

Scottish Ballet’s The Crucible premiered six years ago, and I gave it 5 stars so swept away was I by the pacy storytelling and a thrilling dramatic delivery that made us care. Since then, I’ve tended to rate all new narrative ballet against it and haven’t seen anything that betters it. For me, it’s up there with the Kenneth MacMillan blockbusters like Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Mayerling — that’s a huge statement, I know, and I don’t say it lightly.

The Crucible is, of course, based on Arthur Miller’s 1953 play about the Salem witch trials of the 1690s. As a ballet plot, it’s a ripping yarn of love, lust, revenge and the ugly self-interest of early colonists played out before the all-pervading power of religion and the state. It’s a good yarn in itself but is famously an allegory for the politics of 1950s America, with witch hunts for communists that pitched the community into turmoil, posing harsh dilemmas in how you treat your fellow man. It pays to do some homework, but the Scottish synopsis boils down much of the complexity and is a rapid read.

17th-century Massachusetts is a dark place, and the entire creative team gives us a strong and immersive sense of the oppressive atmosphere. It starts immediately with Peter Salem’s brooding score, folding in the flutter of ravens — evil things surround the community. Sets and costumes concentrate all the power to the centre of the stage, and a moving wall/ceiling in the shape of a cross hovers over all. Emma Kingsbury’s designs are at once modern and also bathed in the period, and I love that there are no sides or boundaries here. That’s further emphasised in the lighting - David Finn’s well-tuned murky illumination of a dark place gets it just right.

But above all, it is the masterful choreography and scenario of Helen Pickett and her collaborator, James Bonas, that winds you in with its riveting detail and unrelenting pace. Within ten minutes of the curtain going up, we see the root of the darkness here as Elizabeth and John Proctor’s strained relationship falls totally apart with the lustful coupling of John and the scheming family maid, Abigail. It’s rare indeed to get such a sense of initial momentum, and it doesn’t let up over the two 40-minute acts. Super honed, there are no longueurs here.

In her last shows before leaving the company, Marge Hendrick well captures the heartbreaking sense of betrayal and subsequent forgiveness of Elizabeth Proctor. It’s easy to see why Hendrick has been nominated in the latest National Dance Awards. Evan Loudon is a subtle and all-too-believable John Proctor, portrayed as a very real man tested every which way throughout the work. I also liked first artist Amy McEntee’s Abigail Williams, who fully delivers the initial infatuation and lust before propelling the community into mayhem with her manipulation and scheming. Bravo, and I look forward to seeing her in other lead roles.

But there are many named characters, and Crucible, above all, is a company-wide effort. As the curtain comes down, we feel we’ve all been through the wringer of hysteria, as individuals and the community fracture in all-too-appalling and believable ways. Arthur Miller and Helen Pickett certainly make you think, and long may it be in the Scottish Ballet repertoire. Contractual niceties aside, it’s also a work that really ought to be taken on by other companies, not least in the US.