The Crucible
Based on Arthur Miller's allegorical play set in Salem Massachusetts in 1692 this powerful adaptation portrays the disintegration of a society once superstition and the power of organised religion are exploited to settle scores for personal gain and even survival.
Reviews:
It’s all brilliantly realised by the company, and supported by a shattering score by the aptly named Peter Salem. With great skill he matches sound to action: a great clatter of drums for Proctor’s unleashed passion; a whomp of violins for the wild and whirring Walpurgis night dances in the woods; screeches of strings as people meet their fate.
Played live by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra, Peter Salem’s unsettling, detailed and carefully textured score underpins the dark narrative with a light-and-shade balance of bubbling, edgy percussion and zig-zagging strings, weighed-down with ominous bass legato – often rich and rhapsodic, but never murky or dense, and always descriptive.
Photos: Jane Hobson