Scottish Ballet: The Crucible, Aberdeen review: 'prayer books wielded like weapons'

Accusatory fingers in Scottish Ballet’s The Crucible (Picture: Rimbaud Patron)

Scottish Ballet: The Crucible, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen ★★★★

We can scarcely imagine the fear, confusion and ultimately violence that swept through Salem, Massachusetts during the 17th century witch trials. Arthur Miller tried to capture it in his 1950s play, The Crucible – and here, choreographer Helen Pickett and aptly named composer Peter Salem do an equally fine job of depicting the humans behind the headlines.

This is the second outing for Scottish Ballet’s 2019 production, but with an almost entirely new cast it still feels fresh and new. A giant cross looms over the stage, a constant reminder that faith can evoke a myriad of emotions. Here, it fuels hatred and scapegoating amongst the villagers, and is personified by a cluster of menacing characters Pickett calls the ‘Men of God’.

Clad in black, these cold calculating figures dance with an angular sharpness, wielding their prayer books like weapons. Their jaggy movement is in sharp contrast to the sensual pas de deux Pickett created for John Proctor, first with his young lover Abigail then wife Elizabeth. The former duet pulses with the first flush of desire, the latter mining the depths of long-held love.

She also captures the hormonally-charged liminal space between childhood and womanhood occupied by Abigail and her fellow teens. All the while, the superb Scottish Ballet Orchestra echoes each sentiment with a stirring swell of strings, low-bowed foreboding, or spiky percussion.

Once the trial begins, there are moments when the comings and goings, the movement equivalent of ‘he said, she said’, are a little hazy. It’s of minor concern, though because what’s crystal clear throughout, is the mood and atmosphere of the piece. Whether we’re witnessing sexual tension, adolescent hysteria, romance, or fear-mongered trauma, Pickett’s choreography and Salem’s score work in perfect tandem to evoke the desired response.