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Why did you want to direct The Crucible?
I wanted to direct The Crucible because it seems, sadly, a play very much for our times. With Bush and Blair generating hysteria over terrorism and the frightening rise of Christian Fundamentalism in the US, there are real parallels between the world of Miller's play and our own times.
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Why do you think a company like the Royal Shakespeare Company should be producing a play by Arthur Miller on the main stage?
The Crucible is a truly Shakespearean play and is a perfect play for the RSC to do on the main stage. Firstly it is a huge public play which is big enough in its sweep and ambition to fill that huge space. Secondly its language is beautifully poetic and heightened in the Shakespearean tradition. Thirdly, Miller uses the past to examine the problems of the present in the same way Shakespeare does in his history plays. Finally, it is a truly great play, one of the greatest of our times and it's important that the RSC produces other great plays, both contemporary and classic, alongside the plays of Shakespeare.
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What do you think audiences can take from The Crucible in the context of today's politics?
Miller was writing very much about the rise of McCarthyism and the House of Un-American Activities in The Crucible, which in the early 50s destroyed people's lives and careers by branding them communists. At that time, the American people were terrified of the Communist takeover in China and Russia's recent development of nuclear weapons. Similarly, our post 9/11 world is characterised by politicians, in the US especially, exploiting public fear to get away with destroying civil liberties and also blaming minorities, for example gay people, for corrupting American values. It seems society's need to find scapegoats and go on witch-hunts hasn't gone away. We live in very fearful times and Miller shows how dangerous it is to make decisions when guided by fear.
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What do you think of Arthur Miller as a playwright?
Miller is one of the most important writers of the 20th century. What marks him out for me is his remarkable compassion. He sees how cruel the world can be, and how circumstances can lead people to being destructive and dishonest but he never judges his characters. That to me is the mark of a truly great writer, and you can sense the same quality when you work on Shakespeare or Chekhov. Miller also has great technique and a brilliant way of dramatising the relationship of the individual to his or her society. All of Miller's plays are, in some way, about the way the public world shapes the choices that individuals make. Shakespeare deals with this relationship vividly as well.
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Why did you feel you needed to visit Salem as part of your research?
I went to Salem and travelled around Massachusetts in order to get a sense of the world of the play. Salem itself has created a tourist industry out of the witch-hunts which is a little tacky and strange. The town is full of small waxwork museums and new age paraphernalia and the one serious museum tells you nothing about the events of 1692. The real events of the play didn't take place in Salem town but in Salem Village which is about five miles away and is now called Danvers. My partner and I drove around and found many of the homes of characters in the play: Rebecca Nurse's house, John Proctor's tavern [the real Proctor was an innkeeper not a farmer] and John Hale's farm in Beverley are all standing. It was really helpful to me to see the distances between locations and what the landscape and climate are like. We also went down the coast and went to some of the key Puritan sites along the coast - Plymouth for example. I learned a lot about the Puritans and their lives and values which has helped me tremendously in staging the play. Arthur Miller spent a week in Salem researching the play before he started so I felt I had to follow in his footsteps. I also read many of the books written about the witch-hunts which were very helpful.
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How will you be approaching the production?
When you work on a play as good as this, there's no need to try any fancy tricks or put anything on top of it. The play stands on its own so we're taking a simple approach to realising it. What I am trying to do as we rehearse is encourage the actors to recognise how dangerous and extreme the characters' situations are, that many of their choices are life or death ones. When they realise this and play it the scenes come vividly to life and Miller's extraordinary language takes off.
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Hildegard Bechtler is designing the show. How is she approaching the play?
Hildegard is approaching the play very simply. We are not taking an overly detailed naturalistic approach to the sets because we want the focus to be on the actors. What she has designed is very austere and involves the minimum of changes between scenes and in many ways, I think, it reflects the simplicity and austerity of the Puritans' world. The costume designs have been thoroughly historically researched, but we were keen that they should feel and move like real clothes rather than theatrical costumes.
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What sort of cast have you put together?
We really have a first rate cast. Although John Proctor, played by Iain Glen, is the central character, one of the striking aspects of the play is that there are so many terrific parts. Many of our actors will be known to RSC audiences: Helen Schlesinger, Robert Bowman, James Laurenson and Trevor Peacock (who's also in The Vicar of Dibley) to name a few. We've also got an amazing young actress called Elaine Cassidy playing Abigail. She was recently the lead on Channel Four's Ghost Squad. She's very special and I think she willl blow the audience away.
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Have you directed anything by Miller before?
I've never directed Miller before but rehearsing this has given me a real taste for his work. I would love to do A View From The Bridge and Death of a Salesman soon.
Interview by Nada Zakula, RSC
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