49 - The Crucible, Chichester players

I have never seen a production by The Chichester Players and was really impressed, not just by the excellent production but also by the ticket sales! It was a reasonably long run and when we went, on the last night, New Park was full to bursting.

It's quite possible word had spread through the run about how good this production was. The acting was really first rate, and the director, Richard Brookes, knew what he was doing, framing even difficult scenes with loads of people on stage at once really beautifully.

All three of us, even my sister who claimed before the play that she "didn't like the crucible" were absolutely riveted. When we emerged from the theatre someone on front of house mentioned that it was a long performance and we were genuinely amazed to find we had been watching this for three hours.

If I had a criticism of this production it would be that I personally did not need to see the projection of the Miller interview at the beginning and found that a bit unnecessary, as if the Players felt that I as an audience member needed to have the parallels in the text pointed out to me. I think they could have best used that footage on their website or Facebook page to promote the production in the run up, and for people to check out after seeing the play to drive traffic to their site. However, I don't know if that was just me, other people might have found it useful to have the play put into context for them. I'd be interested to hear what other audience members thought.

We had a really enjoyable evening seeing this play, it was better than some professional productions I have seen at Chichester Festival Theatre in the past, as well as being much better value! I'll definitely look out for future Chichester Players productions.