As TORN’s readers no doubt know, Richard Armitage is currently appearing as John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s brilliant play The Crucible, which is being staged at The Old Vic in London, by director Yaёl Farber. Previews began on 21st June; here’s what the official press release tells us:
“Yaёl Farber directs Arthur Miller’s modern American masterpiece about the Salem witch trials drawing parallels with his experience of McCarthy’s anti-communist investigations in the 1950s. The Crucible tells the story of one man’s fight to save his identity in a repressive Puritan community where intolerance collides with lust and superstition, fuelling widespread hysteria with tragic results.
The Crucible is the third play in a new season of productions which are presented in-the-round at The Old Vic, reprising the transformation of The Old Vic’s auditorium into the round, first seen for the award-winning 2008 production of The Norman Conquests (by Alan Ayckbourn).
Richard Armitage plays John Proctor. This summer Richard can be seen in New Line Cinema’s tornado disaster film Into the Storm, directed by Steven Quale and opposite Sarah Wayne Callies. Later this year he will reprise his starring role of Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the Dwarves, in Peter Jackson’s last instalment of the highly successful Hobbit trilogy alongside Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis and Cate Blanchett. He is also well known to cinema audiences for playing villain Heinz Kruger in Captain America: The First Avenger. Richard has appeared in many high profile television shows such as North and South, Spooks, Robin Hood, Strike Back, The Vicar of Dibley and the BBC’s Macbeth opposite James McAvoy and Keeley Hawes. A respected theatre actor, his previous stage work includes The Duchess of Malfi and Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Hamlet at the Birmingham Rep.”
Staffer greendragon will be going along to see the production on 7th July, and we’ll post a review here soon after. Meanwhile, you can read interesting interviews with Richard Armitage, discussing the role and his career in general, in The Telegraph, here and from the BBC, here. For those interested in knowing more about the play and this production, director Yaёl Farber discusses the work in The Independent, here.
The Crucible runs at The Old Vic until 13th Sept; you can buy tickets here.
[Thanks to kiwifan for sending along the Telegraph interview.]
