I have given you my soul: leave me my name!
On Wednesday 4th May the Lower VIth Theatre Studies performed a four-handed adaptation of Millers famous play The Crucible in front of an enthusiastic audience and a visiting examiner from Edexcel.
The four actors gave a stunning interpretation, doubling roles and moving rapidly through scenes montaged from different parts of the play. The relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor, caught up in the hysteria of Salems witch craft trials of 1692, provided the focus and framing narrative. Gradually we saw the trap closing shut, leading to Johns inevitable march to the scaffold, but only once he has regained his self-respect, which dawns on him on seeing his own name signed on a false confession. He cannot purchase life at the expense of a lie.
Lucy Minderides compelling performance as John brilliantly conveyed his inner turmoil and the stages in his progress towards his momentous decision. Playing opposite Lucy was Lily Rutterford, who provided an hugely intelligent and sensitive performance as Elizabeth Proctor, implicated as a witch by her rival in love, Abigail Williams, compellingly played as gorgeous, spiteful and manipulative by Angelica Maxwell. Meanwhile Willow Hellier Watts demonstrated her range and flexibility, skilfully doubling the role of Mary Warren, the Proctors serving girl, with an imperious inquisitorial Danforth, striding the courtroom floor with his inflexible but flawed logic.
The second part of the programme contained four beautifully performed monologues. Willow Hellier Watts played a perky Liverbird Rita in her first Open University tutorial in Educating Rita; Angelica Maxwell gave a devastating, moving performance as Jackie from My Mother Said I Never Should as she reveals to her daughter Rosie that she is her mother, not her sister; Lucy Minderides played Win from Top Girls a successful businesswoman whose personal life does not match her glittering career; finally Lily Rutterford played a tormented Miss Julie, furious after the murder of her pet bird by her lover in Strindbergs play of that name.
Congratulations girls on some truly stunning work.
Mrs Oakley
English and Drama Department
