The Stage Newspager
22 March, 2001
By John Highfield
Picture: Tristram Kenton

It does not get much better than this magnificent and moving new production of Christopher Marlowe's vast historical tragedy.

Michael Grandage's superb Crucible revival is about as close to theatrical perfection as you can get, a thrilling combination of tense political drama and passionate love story.

More than just a romantic tragedy, this is a compelling study of one man's fatal obsession, a desperate desire for which he risks and loses everything.

In the central role, Joseph Fiennes gives a commanding performance of enormous range, witty and passionate, by turns both funny and despairing, petulant and pitiful.

But equally impressive is James D'Arcy's sleek, seductive Gaveston, the object of Edward's all-consuming devotion, a man clearly tainted by decadence. There is excellent support from Jo McInnes as Edward's scheming wife and Lloyd Owen as her plotting lover Mortimer, Ben Porter as the corrupt Spencer and Alex Avery as a truly sinister assassin.

Visually, the production triumphs in its simplicity, with Christopher Oram's outstanding design brought to life by Tim Mitchell's excellent lighting.

A compelling blend of the epic and the intimate, it is directed at Grandage's usual galloping pace, wasting not one minute as the story sweeps to a genuinely shocking and brutal climax.

Exciting and accessible, this is classic drama reaching out to a contemporary audience and proving itself as relevant and remarkable as it ever was.