The Crucible review, Sadler’s Wells: Scottish Ballet’s Arthur Miller adaptation is fierce and stark

Helen Pickett’s production is an evening of unbroken intensity

Grace Horler in Helen Pickett’s production of ‘The Crucible’ (Andy Ross)

Scottish Ballet’s The Crucible is fierce and stark, with storytelling as taut as a stretched bowstring. Choreographer Helen Pickett shapes Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem witch trials into a tight-danced narrative. From the spooky freedom of children’s games to the repressed panic of the courtroom, it’s an evening of unbroken intensity.

Pickett and her team create a spare onstage world. The set and lighting by Emma Kingsbury and David Finn create straight lines for church and courtroom, defining spaces that are both empty and claustrophobic. The forest is even barer, a contrast because those rigid boundaries aren’t there. When the girls of the village play with shadow puppets, they show both a scary wolf and stolen kisses.

The score, by the marvellously named Peter Salem, blends orchestral and electronic sound with snatches of voices. There are snatches of song, and of whispered threats – but when the real accusations come, they’re wordless screams.