The Crucible

Lyric Theatre, Belfast Until Jun 5 7.45pm £5-£23 (Sat mat 2.30pm, Sun mat 3.30pm £5-£21.50, no perf Mon) lyrictheatre.co.uk 028-90381081

For a play riddled with secrets – exploited, twisted and used to fan the flames of mob persecution – The Crucible'sown hidden meanings seem thoroughly well exposed. Who can bear witness to Arthur Miller's depiction of the 1692 Salem witch hunts without dutifully noting each allegorical reference to 1950s McCarthyism? The play is dense with historical detail, psychological insight and political allusions, so the question for any revival must be, what more can it mean?

Perhaps such a sturdy classic is a necessary counterbalance to another, more striking performance – that of the new Lyric Theatre itself. Now unveiled following an £18 million (€20.3 million) redesign, the Lyric features a maze of walkways, nautical-themed curlicues and an asymmetrical auditorium intriguingly described by The Irish Times'Frank McDonald as a "complex geometrical, iroko-clad cavern". The space sounds so buoyant with newness that its inaugural production may have to serve as an anchor.

Director Conall Morrison, who has long understood the thrilling pulse in political drama, here assembles a 19-strong Irish cast, including Patrick O’Kane as the repentant adulterer Proctor, Catherine Cusack as his betrayed wife, and Aoife Duffin as their spurned young tormentor. An auspicious occasion requires gravitas, or, as one rock of good sense in a play for panicked times puts it, “More weight”.

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