01may06
Burnside Town Hall Saturday, April 29

By any standard, Arthur Miller's vision of a society where politics and religion poison each other speaks as loudly today against injustice and bigotry as it did 50 years ago.

Megan Dansie's production for the Burnside Players takes an effective and gimmick-free approach, treating the text with intelligence and allowing a large and strong cast to channel their energies into the roles.

John Rosen as John Proctor is a powerful focus, arrogant and reckless, up against the forces of so-called good represented by Richard Gruca as the Reverend Parris and a self-important deputy governor Danforth, given bloated life by Brian Godfrey.

Brad Martin is particularly fine as humanist the Reverend John Hale and Philip Lineton plays the self-dramatising Giles Corey with a strong will. Hannah Wooller and Siobhan Docherty, the two young girls who provoke the tragedy, are well chosen.

The simple set, against a side wall of the usually inhospitable ballroom, is imaginatively lit by Tim Allan and the entire production flows with a vital energy.

– Ewart Shaw

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