Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...And, better yet, I’d say that Berry’s third act is as good as any third act of this play I’ve ever seen. That’s partly due to the truly stunning work by Thornton, who ignites this production as if he’d just found the electric current to make a carefully wired construct jump with the power it craved. But it’s also thanks to the play’s famous scene between the Proctors. That would be Elizabeth, with her moral authority, and flawed John (Travis Knight), whose original sin invited in all the pious aggressors, verbose humans with the collective ability to rip a nervous community apart."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...The moral absolutism of Miller's play is likely best suited for the teenagers the Steppenwolf is aiming this run at. But odd blocking, in which one character often obscures another, blunts its black-and-white message. That the young girls' frolic in the woods-which leads to all the trouble-is evoked with a generic contemporary interpretive dance and Reverend Parris is inexplicably clad in parachute pants undercuts the solemnity of the proceedings as well."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"..."The Crucible" dwells in another world, no less dark or awful but far more public. Lies are the operative force in this grim parody of the McCarthy era's anticommunist witch hunts. Miller simply turns his mirror to the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Mass. Although Steppenwolf presents the production as part of its Young Adults series, the show's seriousness, potency and rigorous brilliance will appeal to adults of any age."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...The play’s powerful payoff is its final, soul-stirring sacrifice. An act of utterly unexpected decency, in this self-darkened, fear-mongering, and religion-plagued world of suspicion and paranoia it stands out like the star over Bethlehem."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...This may be one of the finest productions for Young Audiences that this illustrious theatre company has ever offered. While Arthur Miller wrote this play as his response to McCarthyism in the 1950s, it also happens to tap into the politics of today’s callous, uncompromising and bullying national government. The astute audience member will recognize some of Washington’s more antagonistic players in some of these characters, with John and Elizabeth Proctor, Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse and their friends and neighbors representing the common man. This play is not only timely but a frightening reminder of how mob mentality can destroy. It’s an intelligent examination of how dangerous vengeance can become, a force that once walked the streets of Salem."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...I enjoyed Berry’s production very much. I couldn’t stop seeing and fearing how lies spoken with conviction can instigate people to do horrible things to their neighbors."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...The Crucible features some carefully drawn performances and Berry's direction enhances them and moves the complex action along smoothly. Michael Patrick Thornton as Deputy Governor Danforth conducts the trials with grim determination and a voice of power. Knight as John Proctor is a pillar of strength for as long as he can be. Echaka Agba is a colorful Tituba as well as a serious Judge Hathorne. Hellman is a sincere anti-satanist but sees the truth at the end. Hebrail Kidjo plays Abigail as a determined teenaged temptress."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...Steppenwolf Theater bears a solid resemblance to our man John Proctor. Masterful at truth-telling and never shy, Steppenwolf's choice to present The Crucible in their Young Adults Productions is particularly meaningful in a our own time where truth has become blurred by political cacophony and divisive rhetoric aimed at the vulnerable. Miller's cautionary tale of the 1950's has a contemporary lesson. Those who ask questions of the status quo and refuse the comfort of the bandwagon when truth is at stake will feel a kinship with this fine production."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...As an overproduced work from one of the great overproduced American playwrights, this production exchanges urgency for credibility. The play’s themes and resonances have been so well-documented that a production requires intense specificity, which is lacking here. Still, as a work of educational theater that makes reality literary and vice versa, the idea of success in this context is different than in a more conventional setting. In that regard, it requires from the traditional Steppenwolf audience the kind of freshness of senses that much of its intended audience (namely the CPS students who are bussed in for weekday matinee performances) will have in order to induce the sense of awe and terror that this work is capable of."
