THE CRUCIBLE I will fall like an ocean on that court.. Fear nothing Elisabeth.. We are only what we always were, but naked now. Aye, naked! And the wind, God’s icy wind will blow! As some of you may know I found the Stage Door experience ( except for the lovely people I met ) a bit rushed, impersonal, un-huggable...;) But the main purpose of the trip, which was watching the play did not dissapoint me at all! It is the most remarkable and overwhelming play I´ve ever seen!! The Crucible was already a familiar play/story, for me, being a huge fan of Daniel Day Lewis since the 90´s. I was thrilled with the opportunity to see our RA on stage playing this fantastic part. And he delivered an amazing John Proctor! After watching the play 3 times in 2 days, from different angles, I am happy to report that, like only you can experience in theatre, there were slight differences in the emotional degree and depth with each performance. This, in my opinion causes you to have an even more pleasurable experience as you feel you are watching it new and fresh. Of couse, by now, I was way familiar with the words and I did look forward to the next quote, awaiting my favourite parts and words of the play. I love the way they were able to bring out the contrast of peaceful moments ( loved the scene when the light pours over Richard/John Proctor as he mentions the lilacs of Massachusetts with the gaze of an angel.) with those of alarming tension and dispair. Absolutely amazing!! I can say Richard´s performance on Friday night was particularly intense and heartbreaking. I´ve never seen him like that in any of his past work or roles. His body was literally shaking, like irremediable taken into an uncontrollable emotion of commotion and agitation, a heartbreak of high leveled tension . He was shaking in agony, real tears rolling down his face, that kept dropping on the floor ( man, did I want to run to the stage and hug him then..) There was a deep silence in the audience, Richard really takes you into John Proctors pain, fury, hurt, guilt and dispair...his voice, you could tell he was fighting with it, with all the contained emotion. I could see now that it is not a matter of his voice being stressed by rather the amount of emotion he lets go out with it. The words seemed to fight the way out and the most beautiful, bitter and agonizing manner. I could see that was the weariness we see in some of the Stage Door pics. Weary and exhausted as though he had travelled along an unending road- (Stefan Sweig) In the other two performances he was more emotionally contained, his voice was stronger and firm, yet perfectly delivering a broken, desperate and sorrowful John Proctor. And that is the magic and beauty of theatre. Not a single performance is exact. And I loved that. Richard totally surrenders to John Proctor, a beautiful, unique resembling a man, whos ´mix of guilt and genuine love for his sweet wife breaks him apart. And to be fair, although your eyes travel around the stage following Richard Armitage. you can´t help but fall in love with these amazing cast. After 3 performances it felt like I knew them all my life. I loved Elisabeth Proctor. What they´ve done with her character in this play, with her quiet entrance you see her sorrow, her deep pain crying I am not good enough, not pretty enough, not enough something she is able to say when she opens up to John in the last scene. Anna Madeley is beautiful. Samantha who plays Abigail is less scary in person as she may look in pictures, but she is huge on stage! Of course my new BFF Adrian Schiller was also amazing. Beethoven said : To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable. -Beethoven THE CRUCIBLE may hit the wrong notes for some people but it is definitely a play with passion!!
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 22:45:14 +0000