Review: THE CRUCIBLE, Shakespeare’s Globe

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a chilling portrayal of a community unraveling under the weight of fear and suspicion. Set in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, the play explores how personal grievances and mass hysteria can lead to devastating consequences. Director Ola Ince brings this tale to life at Shakespeare’s Globe with an immersive production that places the audience at the heart of the action.

From the moment the audience steps into the space, the world of Salem envelops them. Drums pound, a bell tolls ominously, men storm through the crowd with rifles, and two raised platforms placed within the standing audience. On one, a woman sweeps in silence. On the other, a woman with lashes across her bare back sobs uncontrollably. It is harrowing to witness and immediately sets the tone for what’s to come. This is not a performance to sit back and observe. This is an experience to be dropped into.

Amelia Jane Hankin’s set is sparse but evocative. Props like a dinner table, stools and wooden boxes appear just when needed, allowing the actors’ performances and the raw aesthetic of the Globe to keep the audience rooted in place and time.

Performances across the board are strong, with standouts from Gavin Drea as John Proctor, Hannah Saxby as Abigail Williams, Phoebe Pryce as Elizabeth Proctor and Bethany Wooding as Mary Warren. Saxby’s Abigail is particularly unsettling to watch. Early scenes reveal a chilling light bulb moment where she realises the power she holds in a town gripped by fear. Her interactions with John Proctor are deeply uncomfortable, charged with obsession, entitlement and emotional manipulation. She is clearly a delusional and dangerous young woman, and Saxby plays this with frightening precision. Wooding deftly handles Mary Warren’s spiral from moral conviction to terrified compliance, while Pryce’s Elizabeth is steely and quietly heart-wrenching.

But it is Gavin Drea’s Proctor who leaves the deepest impression. While his accent occasionally muddies some lines, the emotional weight he brings to the final scenes is harrowing. Watching a proud man slowly unravel under impossible moral pressure is difficult enough, but his final, gut-wrenching plea not to have his false confession used against him is devastating. “Because it is my name,” he cried, and in that moment, the stakes of integrity, dignity and legacy become terrifyingly real. Drea captures Proctor’s disintegration with heartbreaking honesty, and when he ultimately chooses death over the destruction of his name, the only thing he has left, it is nothing short of soul-crushing.

The staging of the courtroom scenes within the audience heightens the intensity. Gareth Snook’s Judge Danforth presides with unnerving rigidity, and the children’s hysterics are played with physical commitment so extreme it is almost unbearable to witness. Abigail, face flushed and body shaking, is so convincing in her performance of possession that it becomes chillingly clear why the court believes her.

This Crucible is not without its flaws. Some lines are lost in heavy accents, and the first act, while well-paced overall, occasionally lags in energy. But these are minor quibbles in a production that is otherwise bold, immersive and emotionally devastating.

What makes this production truly haunting is how well it captures the absurdity of the period. People genuinely believed they were rooting out witches. The sheer madness of what unfolds children condemning adults, lies becoming law is both surreal and disturbingly familiar. The reason it is so chilling is not only because these events actually happened, but because of how convincingly the company brings them to life. Ola Ince’s direction, the committed performances, and the positioning of the audience within the action make the horror of the era feel frighteningly close

The Crucible at the Globe is more than a revival. It is a raw, riveting reminder of what happens when logic fails, when fear leads and when truth is silenced. A timely, chilling piece of theatre that lingers long after the final bell tolls.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Laura Harris

The Crucible plays at Shakespeare’s Globe until 12 July, with further info here.