Players Centre and Two Chairs Theatre stage Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’

It’s a 64-year-old play that takes place in the 17th century. But Elliott Raines said that “The Crucible” is as relevant today as ever.

Raines is directing the classic Arthur Miller drama, in a joint production from the Players Centre for Performing Arts and his own Two Chairs Theatre.

Miller wrote the dramatized and fictionalized account of the Salem Witch Trials as a metaphor for the McCarthy Hearings of the 1950s. Miller himself was questioned and charged during those hearings.

“This is a terrific play,” Raines said. “It’s a wonderfully prescient play for today. It’s an allegorical play about the Salem Witch Trials. It’s about the devastating effect that being accused of something, merely being accused, can have on your life. It’s still relevant because society today is so polarized.”

At the root of the play, he said, is the hysterical and essentially unfounded fear of people who are different. It was witches in the 17th century, communists in the 1950s, immigrants and Muslims in 2017. The specifics may change, but it’s all fear and hatred of “the other.”

Raines’ company, Two Chairs, specializes in classic American theater of the mid-1950s. It has so far produced just one show a year, and over the past three years it has presented three Tennessee Williams plays: “The Glass Menagerie,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

“The Crucible” is the first of four Arthur Miller plays that Raines plans to direct, all in conjunction with the Players Centre. The other three haven’t been scheduled or even named yet.

In looking at Miller’s plays, which include “Death of a Salesman,” “A View From the Bridge,” “All My Sons” and “After the Fall,” Raines sees a common thread.

“Miller describes in virtually every play the cost, or the price if you’ll forgive the pun, of the decisions we make,” he said.

The pun he’s referring to is his reference to “The Price,” one of Miller’s works.

The action of “The Crucible takes place in 1692 in Salem, Mass. When several girls fall ill after being discovered dancing in the woods, locals suspect that sinister forces may be at work. Grudges turn to violent disputes, secrets are exposed, the line between truth and lies becomes increasingly blurry, and the citizens’ determination to root out evil becomes more dangerous than the evil itself. Everyone becomes a suspect and no one is safe.

The cast for the Two Chairs/Players Centre production includes Carrie McQueen, Lynne Doyle, Tom Aposporos, Kevin Sario and Dylan Jones.

Details: Aug. 30-Sept. 10, The Players Centre for Performing Arts, 838 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $27-$32. 941-365-2494, theplayers.org.

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Players Centre and Two Chairs Theatre stage Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’."