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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.

Date:
2019
Company:
Scottish Ballet
Choreographer:
Helen Pickett
Dramaturge:
James Bonas
Design:
Emma Kingsbury and David Finn
Lighting:
David Finn

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.

Sarah Crompton 11 Aug 2019 The Guardian

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.

David White 4 Aug 2019 artmag
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Photos: Jane Hobson