We take a look at what is being said about the UK premiere of Talene Monahon‘s play set a year before the Salem witch trials began.
The Guardian: *** “It is excellently performed nonetheless, especially Edwards’ viciously rumour-mongering Mercy. Natalie Johnson’s set design is a room with a bed, effective in its stripped puritan simplicity, and Bella Kear’s sound design of hums and whistles is evocative in its blend of innocence and dread.”
The Arts Desk: *** “It’s laudable that the play gives voice to the girls at the heart of the story that Miller mined for his allegorical drama, but Monahon goes beyond that, adding speculation concerning child abuse and rape. That is her right as the author and nobody should ever expect such fictionalisations of history to come with footnotes and peer reviews in the citations. Along with the regular use of 21st century language, it does catapult the play into a contemporary moral space, but I suspect that would always happen anyway.”
Broadway World: ** “Ultimately, it feels like the vision as a whole is restrained by major forces. On one side we have the desire to be cool and different that’s coming from the writing, on the other, the production is held back by its ambiguous objective. We sit and wait for a revelation, but Monahon doesn’t really make any points except that the characters are growing up in a world of obedience and punishment, battling hard to find an inch of independence and freedom. Abigail (Anna Fordham in an eclectic performance) goes from being the main antagonist of Miller’s take to becoming an endearing and troubled kid who was groomed and abused.”
The Reviews Hub: ** 1/2 “The Good John Proctor is best in its depiction of the domestic lives of girls growing up under the yoke of Puritan theocracy. There is pathos and pain in the girls’ subjugation and ignorance – most effectively rendered in a scene in which Abigail experiences her first period. “Satan has hit you up if the blood stops” Mercy warns her ominously. One cannot help thinking a feminist reimagining of the Salem witch trials ought to view the fourteen innocent women who were executed as something more than collateral damage in a teenage battle against the patriarchy.”
London Unattached: “While the performances are strong, the play itself might benefit from an edit. It feels too long at 90 minutes. It requires some knowledge of The Crucible and needs to be able to stand alone for those unfamiliar with Miller’s play which it alludes to constantly since the four characters are central to that play. I wondered what sense those who do not know the play or the details of the Salem witch trials might have made of it.”
Fringe Review.co.uk: “A valuable corrective to anticipate both real events and Miller’s take on Abigail Williams, the near 100 minutes of this play are absorbing if not entirely satisfying. The epiphany at the end is ambiguous, the crucial scene lacks perhaps sheer desperation – which it needs to power the precise point at which Miller’s work starts. Tightening that up would transform Monahan’s play.”
The Stage: **** “Dark, intriguing historical drama that riffs on Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.”
London Theatre1: ** “Natalie Johnson’s set design works well, particularly as the show is set in various locations, both in and out of doors. At close to 100 minutes, however, the evening felt considerably longer.”
British Theatre Guide: “Miller’s play paralleled contemporary politics and the Macarthy witch-hunt against the Left. Here, a regime of religious dogmatism, strict discipline and keeping young women in ignorance with the potential for violence and sexual exploitation presented as precursor to the Salem trials is a reminder of the way women are still treated in some contemporary societies.”
Theatrecat.com: “A few passages could be tightened, but the interplay between the four girls is riveting, recognizable and intelligently alarming. Like Joanna Carrick’s recent and brilliant UNGODLY and The Crucible itself, it holds between the lines truths for every age about repression, superstitious fanaticism, and the unbalances of youth . Another fascinating Jermyn St discovery. “
The Good John Proctor continues to play until the 27th January.