The Crucible

If you're in New York or can get here, I'd think you can find some photos of various productions on the third floor of the Library of the Performing Arts.

Boris Aronson designed the original production. Perhaps because no one, including Aronson, was very happy with his designs, there's only one sketch and one smallish photo in the book on Aronson.

A couple of Tim Hatley's sets for the last revival were interesting. The first act was very definitely set in an attic, with entrances and exits made from below and with a low, cantilevered walls/ceilings. I hadn't seen that in any other production.

And the Proctors' home seemed to be one big room with a huge loft in which it appeared most of the Proctor household slept.

The sets for the National Actors' Theatre production were very spare. As I recall it, no walls, only furniture.

The excellent 1972 production at the Beaumont also had very spare sets. I wish I could remember them better. They were by Jo Mielziner. There may be sketches in one of the two Mielziner books, but I think neither book has any photos.

Updated On: 3/14/09 at 04:01 AM

http://images.google.com/images?q=the+crucible&q=source%3Alife

Those photos are mostly of the original production, and neither Aronson nor Miller was happy with the design.

I wish I had the patience to type up the whole section of the Aronson book dealing with it, but I'll try to summarize. Aronson went up to Salem to do research and was fascinated by the severe, heavy architecture of the old buildings, which had a feeling of mystery to him. He incorporated this research into his design. Jed Harris, perhaps the most hated man in Broadway history, was producing and directing. He rejected the design and asked instead for expressionist, Caligari-like designs. Aronson did that, and Harris rejected that too.

Then Harris said he wanted the play to feel like a classic and to look like a Dutch painting, so Aronson did that and that's what they went with. Both Aronson and Miller were unhappy with it.