{"id":1774,"date":"2019-04-16T09:42:56","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T08:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1774"},"modified":"2019-04-16T16:59:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T15:59:22","slug":"propwatch-the-poppet-in-the-crucible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2019\/04\/propwatch-the-poppet-in-the-crucible.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the poppet in The Crucible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last night, as a cat nestled in the crook of my arm and its paws rasped happily over my fingers, I thought: I\u2019m just a step away from a 17th-century witch trial. None of my neighbours in this part of London has an ailing pig or a crop prone to blight, praise be. But we all have our sorrows, and all need a way to explain them too ourselves. A cat and a pact with the devil are as good as any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frogs and other familiars are namechecked in The Crucible<\/a><\/em>, but the only one of Satan\u2019s accessories we actually see in Arthur Miller\u2019s play is a poppet. A small doll, nothing fancy, fashioned in a courtroom to pass the long hours between denunciations. Mary Warren, the young servant woman who makes it, brings it home to the Proctors, gives it to the missus. She\u2019d neatly tucked her needle in its belly when she was done \u2013 and it is that poppet, that needle, that will haul Mrs Proctor to prison accused of witchcraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Jay Miller\u2019s new production at London\u2019s Yard Theatre,\nexcitingly true to the text and taking equally captivating liberties with its\nstaging, we see the poppet. Much of the design is modern, but that homely\npoppet might have been made in any century. A lumpy little body made of scraps\nand remnants, four stubby limbs in a scrap of dress perhaps made from the same\nfabric as Mary\u2019s own. Its face, just two blank, black dots for eyes. On the\nkitchen table it\u2019s a gift. In a court official\u2019s sealed plastic bag, it\u2019s\nevidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Propwatch has looked at dolls before, oh yes it has<\/a>. Their uncanny effect, their unwholesome daintiness. Their downright sinister ways. But the point of the Crucible<\/em>\u2019s poppet is that, in itself, it isn\u2019t sinister at all. Just a squeeze of affection no bigger than a hand, a soft toy to soften a hard farming life. Those little eyes, dots of dark thread only, won\u2019t follow you round the room. The poppet\u2019s terrors are human-made, a gathering cloud of fear and spite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick primer to the Yard\u2019s production. Some trad bits \u2013 a few sober period costumes, wood and pewter accessories. Most of it, in C\u00e9cile Tr\u00e9moli\u00e8res\u2019 design, is startling. Initially, 19 chairs, each labelled with a character\u2019s name, so that just nine actors can establish identity. A surround of white strings and a yellow fretwork, for looming faces and a sense of a nervous community keeping surveillance on each other. British accents gradually becoming American. Some gender-fluid casting \u2013 notably Caoilfhionn Dunne\u2019s superbly anguished John Proctor, the play\u2019s flawed hero. Queasy light and sound \u2013 and, ah yes, the watchers. In the programme, everyone in the cast \u2013 everyone in the creative team \u2013 is credited as \u2018Witch\u2019 alongside their other roles. But are the loitering rubber-masked figures in black hoodies avatars of witchcraft or of human frailty? Spells aren\u2019t real, but suspicion, hysteria, persecution \u2013 those human horrors are all too familiar. The figures gather as the witchhunts take hold on Salem \u2013 the figures bolstering the fake accusations, the closed-circuit justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If those identical, barely-featured faces remind me of anything, it\u2019s the poppet. A figure of minimal identity, just enough to project our love and fear upon. The greatness of Miller\u2019s play is how much it understands about grief, and fear, and shame. About how every accusation carries its own guilt; how every innocent victim bears a scrap of shame, if only that of being named. None is without misery, none without fault. Even Abigail Williams, the unscrupulous agent of the plot, only exploits the tensions around her. She may have been thrown from the Proctors\u2019 home as a harlot after John slept with her \u2013 but she was still a girl, and made a scapegoat for his adult infidelity. Played by Nina Cassells in her professional debut, the slightest figure on stage, you can\u2019t burden her with evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turns out that it doesn\u2019t take much to make evil, or the\nterrors that attend it. Just a sadness. Just a loneliness. Just a poppet. Just\na cat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Helen Murray<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, as a cat nestled in the crook of my arm and its paws rasped happily over my fingers, I thought: I\u2019m just a step away from a 17th-century witch trial. None of my neighbours in this part of London has an ailing pig or a crop prone to blight, praise be. But we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[633,322,321,34,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-1774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-arthur-miller","9":"tag-props","10":"tag-propwatch","11":"tag-theatre","12":"tag-yard-theatre","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1778,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions\/1778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}