When Taking the Fifth Was a Death Sentence
Reviewed 11/12/05
by Arthur Miller
Directed by D. Scott Withers
Scottsdale Community Players
Stagebrush Theatre, Scottsdale
(480) 990-7405
November 4th - 20th, 2005
$10.00 - $20.00
Discount tickets may be available at
Remember when the Scottsdale Community Players used to
take risks? I’m not talking about mounting a lame musical like Babes
in Arms with an awful cast, I’m talking about real theatrical risks
when they nearly bankrupted themselves with big budget shows of high quality
scripts. SCP may have found a nice balance this season, offering an impressive
mounting of a classic dramatic script, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
Though it has a few moments of imbalance, it is still one of the best things
I have seen at Stagebrush in many years. Some of the credit goes to its seasoned
director, D. Scott Withers, some to its able core of actors,
and some must also be given to the board at SCP, a group willing to expand
the Rodgers-and-Hammerstein-to-Simon-to-Bock-and-Harnick routine.
Withers’ has made this already tense offering moody and sinister. He has added artful tableaus through the use of scrims on his stark set and choreographed scene changes that are as accusatory of the audience as they are emblematic of the growing onstage tensions. There is a professional tone that has been missing for far too long. For the most part, his actors are able to work with the difficult material.
Withers’ cast of 19 features a few rising stars and established actors. The central triangle features Randy Hesson as the emblematic John Proctor, Willa Darian as the manipulative Abigail Williams, and Heather Harper as John’s sickly wife Elizabeth. Hesson starts off with a strong stoic style, and for much of the play, he incrementally raises his ire as he confronts injustices, but by the end of the show, he, as well as a lot of the cast, fall into identical strangled shouting that slightly undercuts the power of the finale. Darian plays the seductive harlot well, and transforms nicely into the accuser. Harper leans a bit toward the martyrdom of Elizabeth, playing her illness more than other possibilities, and her makeup loses subtlety the further she moves into the show, but there’s a nice moment of bonding between her and Hesson in their final scene together.
Yolanda London is a natural as the mystical Tituba, offering a wild, desperate slave who enjoys her power over the young girls and mourns for her lost Barbados. Joey Moore’s idealistic Reverend Hale is full of the pursuit of truth, and he does a good job of presenting Hale’s rapidly deteriorating belief inn the power of truth. Despite trepidations of age, Kimberlee Hart is an utterly convincing Mary Warren, capturing her sniveling and moments of power quite effectively. The other members of Abigail’s cabal (Kyla Druckman, Shannon Pauly, and Felicia Rudolph) make a nice unit, especially during the unnerving group scene near the middle of the second act. Shea Darian creates a more human Rebecca Nurse, avoiding turning her into an icon. Charlie LaSueur starts off strong as Reverend Parris, though he falls into the same trap of hysteria at the end of the show, reneging on some of his prior believability. Jack Pauly gives a performance of Judge Danforth rather reminiscent to his choices for prior roles such as John Adams and Professor Higgins, but his blending of these choices and his belief in his character’s devotion to truth keeps him strong until the final embrouiller, where he, too falls back on shouting with the others. Other members of the ensemble vary in strength.
Some may be put off by Withers’ set, though I really appreciate the symbolism of his trees and the utter blackness beyond, a nice representation of the fears of the original Pilgrims, who saw the woods as the realms of the Devil. Scott Campbell’s lighting leans a bit toward the dark, but adds to the moodiness of the piece. Ben Monrad’s sound design is occasionally overpowering, but adds a filmic soundtrack that features mournful classical pieces. Carolyn Christy’s costumes set class and period effectively.
The decline of the finale into shouting isn’t enough to undercut the power of the two and a half hours that preceded it. Things are looking up for SCP.
