KEY POINTS:
In 1968, when the fledgling Mercury Theatre Company staged The Crucible, few questioned the relevance of the American play to 1960s New Zealand.
Written by Arthur Miller in 1952, The Crucible used the 1692 Salem witch trials as a thinly disguised allegory for American paranoia about Soviet communism. Its warning about the dangers of irrational belief echoed in New Zealand, where American fears had permeated.
The Crucible, which begins when the young girls of a closed religious sect are discovered experimenting with devil-worship, also had an eerie resonance to the 1954 trial of Christchurch school girls Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme.
In the play, the girls save themselves by denouncing their fellow Puritan neighbours as witches and Satanists; the innocent become the guilty as their community is gripped by fear and suspicion.
In the Parker/Hulme case, the teenagers murdered Parker's mother after she became concerned about the fantasy world the girls concocted and the nature of their relationship.
Timeliness was certainly not a problem for then-director Ian Mune, but finding actresses old enough to play some of the roles was. Subsequently some very young women were "aged" in makeup for the parts of the community's elder stateswomen. Elizabeth McRae was one of them.
"I played Rebecca Nurse. If everyone listened to her, the play would have ended at Act One," says McRae. "She is the voice of reason, the person who tells everyone to ignore the girls because they are simply going through a stage, indulging in a bit of youthful folly."
With the latest return of The Crucible to the Auckland stage, one could well suggest the more things change, the more they stay the same. McRae, for example, plays the same role in the Auckland Theatre Company version as she did in 1968.
That, though, is not quite what is meant by things staying the same. To quote London's Daily Telegraph, The Crucible "suddenly seems like a play whose time has come again, with its portrayal of religious extremism and its impact on the state".
Which is why ATC artistic director Colin McColl, who directs The Crucible, chose it as the classic work the company will revive this year.
"Miller wrote The Crucible in the early 1950s when the American government was propagating the myth of a deadly and unseen enemy threatening the safety of every American citizen. It used this to justify its blatant breaches of justice and civil liberties and increasing authoritarianism.
"The parallels today are startling. With many New Zealanders questioning whether they are still living in a secular society, it seemed the perfect time to revisit his epic vision of a community gone mad with mistrust and mass hysteria."
McRae agrees, citing publicity about Exclusive Brethren activities and "the war on terror" as examples of The Crucible's longevity.
"Certain lines in the production bare a remarkable resemblance to some of the things George W. Bush has said in recent times."
Already, 42 schools, some as far away as Wellington, have booked to see the production. While it pays homage to the original, there are contemporary references.
McColl has found a demographically appropriate cast, bringing together veteran performers such as Raymond Hawthorne, George Henare, Ray Henwood and McRae with mid-career stage actors like Peter Daube, Hera Dunleavy, Roy Ward, Rima Te Wiata, Margaret-Mary Hollins, David Aston, Gareth Reeves and Edwin Wright.
They perform alongside newcomers Curtis Vowell, Michelle Blundell, Brooke Williams, Ellen Simpson, Emily Robins and Bree Peters and five Unitec students performing as part of their training.
"It's nice to have the right age range on stage," says McRae. "The stage is one place where it is totally equal no matter how old you are, because we are all only as good as our last performance and all relying on one another."
Ellen Simpson, 20, has the toughest job of the newcomers. She plays the protagonist, Abigail Williams, who leads the other girls in the demonic rituals and, when discovered, cries "witch" the loudest.
Born in the Wairarapa, Simpson was just 18 when she performed alongside Michael Barrymore and Tina Cross in the musical Chicago. She has been living in Sydney since, concentrating on dancing.
She paid her own way to return home to audition for The Crucible. "I really wanted the part of Abigail because it's the kind of role you can really sink your teeth into."
Manipulative, sly and vengeful are descriptions most commonly applied to the character; Simpson prefers to see her as a born leader with the requisite qualities of determination, inventiveness and the courage of her convictions.
McRae chuckles at Simpson's description. "I'm glad Ellen looks at it like that," she says, "because you have to like the characters you play, to be able to see their human qualities to portray them as the complex and rounded people they are."
ON STAGE
What: The Crucible
Where and when: Maidment Theatre, July 5-28
