CRUCIBLE THEATRE A Sheffield Theatres production
THE CRUCIBLE
By Arthur Miller
Saturday 2 – Saturday 30 March 2024
Director Anthony Lau
Designer Georgia Lowe
Lighting Designer Jess Bernberg
Composer and Sound Designer Giles Thomas
Musical Director and Arrangements Chris Poon
Casting Director Jacob Sparrow
Movement Director and Choreographer Aline David
Intimacy and Fight Director Haruka Kuroda
Assistant Director Jessica Millward
By arrangement with Josef Weinberger Plays Ltd.
Sheffield Theatres today announces the cast for The Crucible. Arthur Miller’s timeless masterpiece, based on the events of the infamous Salem witch trials, is directed by Anthony Lau (Miss Saigon, Anna Karenina) and runs in the Crucible from Saturday 2 – Saturday 30 March.
The full cast includes: Geoffrey Aymer as Giles Corey; Ian Drysdale as Deputy Governor Danforth; Jasmine Elcock as Mercy Lewis; Honor Kneafsey as Betty Parris; Joseph Langdon as Ezekiel Cheever; Anoushka Lucas as Elizabeth Proctor; Andrew Macbean as Francis Nurse; Simon Manyonda as John Proctor; Alexandra Mathie as Rebecca Nurse; Giullianna Martinez as Tituba; Laura Pyper as Ann Putnam and Sarah Good; Sid Sagar as Reverend Hale; Rose Shalloo as Abigail Williams; Mark Weinman as Thomas Putnam; Millicent Wong as Mary Warren; and Sargon Yelda as Reverend Parris.
Returning to Sheffield after previously performing in Sheffield Theatres productions is: Andrew Macbean, who performed across all three theatres in ROCK / PAPER / SCISSORS in 2022; Simon Manyonda, who performed at the Crucible in Romeo and Juliet in 2015; Sid Sagar, who performed in hang in the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse in 2019; and Mark Weinman, who performed in Sheffield Theatres’ production of Wildfire Road in the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse in 2023. All other members of the cast make their Sheffield Theatres production debut with The Crucible.
Fear and hysteria grip a feuding community as a battle between innocence and guilt exposes the very darkest corners of human nature. When a group of young girls are discovered dancing and chanting in the forest, they are accused of witchcraft. With the threat of execution hanging over them, the girls draw the people of the town into a world of secrets, lies and manipulation where the only goal is self-preservation.
Cast Biographies:
Geoffrey Aymer (Giles Corey)
Theatre as actor includes: Romeo and Juliet (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); The Wizard of Oz (Curve Theatre, Leicester/London Palladium); Clutch (Bush Theatre); Jitney (Old Vic Theatre/Headlong/Leeds Playhouse); The Taxidermist’s Daughter (Chichester Festival Theatre); Sunset Boulevard (Royal Albert Hall); GHBoy (Charing Cross Theatre); Apollo 13:The Dark Side Of The Moon (Online Production); Two Trains Running (ETT UK tour); The Color Purple (Leicester Curve/Birmingham Hippodrome); Robin Hood And The Arrow Of Destiny (Theatre Peckham); The Plague (Arcola); Driving Miss Daisy (Frinton Summer Theatre/Canal Cafe Theatre); The Importance Of Being Earnest (Original Theatre UK tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Young Vic); To Kill A Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre/UK tour/Barbican); Macbeth and The Lightning Child (Shakespeare’s Globe); Neighbors (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton); Angel House (Eclipse UK tour); The Big Life (Theatre Royal Stratford East/ Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue). Theatre as Writer includes: Rapunzel; Scroogelicious; Men-TALL; The Wonderful (all 4 for Theatre Peckham); Anansi and the Magic Mirror (Talawa Theatre); The Oddest Couple (Theatre Royal Stratford East); What A Wonderful World (Blue Elephant Theatre). Television includes: Mr Winner; Guerrilla; EastEnders; The A Force; The Real McCoy. Film includes: The Marvels; Sket; RagTag.
Ian Drysdale (Deputy Governor Danforth)
Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre includes: Backstairs Billy (West End); A Doll’s House Part 2, (Donmar Warehouse); The Mirror and the Light, The Night of the Iguana, All About Eve, The Tempest, Ivanov, Hamlet (West End/Broadway); Red, Henry V (Michael Grandage Company); The Visit, Network, Blood and Gifts (National Theatre); Hamlet, Macbeth, Brand, Much Ado About Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra, Sejanus, Believe What You Will, Thomas More (RSC); Twelfth Night, Richard III (Shakespeare’s Globe); Rough Crossing (Headlong); Idée Fixe, The Beaux Stratagem (Bristol Old Vic). Film credits include: Firebrand, Wicked Little Letters, My Policemen, Supernova, Suffragette, Tulip Fever, Genius. Television credits include: The Diplomat, Buffering, The Sister Boniface Mysteries, Sitting in Limbo, Casualty, Deep State, Harlots, Doc Martin, Cider with Rosie, Atlantis, Pulling, Time Gentlemen Please, The Bill.
Jasmine Elcock (Mercy Lewis)
Trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. She made her professional debut in the English Touring Theatre production of Macbeth. Theatre in training includes Curtains, Metamorphoses, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Julius Caesar.
Honor Kneafsey (Betty Parris)
Theatre credits include: The Trials (Donmar Warehouse); Evita, Scrooge (Bill Kenwright Ltd.); Sound of Music (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
Film credits include: Napoleon (Apple Studios/Scott Free Productions); Legacy of Lies (Toy Cinema/Netflix); A Christmas Prince, A Christmas Prince – The Royal Wedding, A Christmas Prince – The Royal Baby (Netflix); Crooked House (Fred Films/Blue Penguin); The Bookshop (Zephyr Films); Butterfly Kisses (Blue Shadow Films/BBC Films); Slumbers (Teashop Films); Miss You Already (Embargo Films). Television credits include: Sick Note (King Bert); Babs (BBC); Benidorm series 8 and 9 (Tiger Aspect); Sherlock (BBC1); Siblings 2 (BBC3); Untitled Sarah Silverman Pilot (HBO); Our Zoo (BBC); X Company (Temple Street Productions); Friday Night Dinner (Big Talk Productions).
Joseph Langdon (Ezekiel Cheever)
Theatre credits include: The Effect (National Theatre); Village Idiot (Pioneer Theatre); The Seagull, Cyrano De Bergerac (The Jamie Lloyd Company); Faith, Hope, Charity (A Zeldin Company / European Tour); Winners (The Wardrobe Ensemble); Equus (Trafalgar Studios); Harper Regan (Tabard Theatre); Richard II (THSC); Talon (Bristol Old Vic); The Colours (Theatre West); Pigeon English (Bristol Old Vic/Nyt). Film credits include: Why I Run (Zoya Films/Nike); Late (UoB); Anonymous (Bd Films); Off Colour (Off The Record).
Anoushka Lucas (Elizabeth Proctor)
A singer, songwriter, actor and writer. Anoushka’s debut play Elephant premiered at the Bush Theatre in 2022 and was revived in 2023. As an actor, her credits include: Oklahoma! (West End / Young Vic); Henry V (Donmar); After Life (National); U.Me (BBC World Service). Her other credits include: Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park); Chiaroscuro (Bush); Faces in the Crowd (Gate); Sparks (Edinburgh Fringe/VAULT Festival). As a composer, Anoushka co-composed the score to The Ballad of Klook and Vinette by Ché Walker (Park/NAMT Festival NYC), and The Etienne Sisters (Stratford East). More recently, Anoushka wrote the score for Sparks by Jessica Butcher (BBC Radio 4/Edinburgh Fringe/VAULT Festival) which won Best Musical of the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 and was adapted for BBC Radio 4. Anoushka’s own music has been championed on BBC Introducing, BBC Radio 2 and Jazz FM and her debut album ‘Dark Soul’ was released in 2019. Anoushka is currently recording her second album.
Andrew Macbean (Francis Nurse)
Trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His work in theatre includes Rock / Paper / Scissors (Sheffield Theatres); Under Milkwood, Amadeus, Twelfth Night (National Theatre); Titus Andronicus, Richard III and Measure for Measure (RSC); She Stoops to Conquer (Theatre Royal Bath); Vanity Fair (Middle Temple Hall); Hedda Gabler (Old Vic); Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing (Rabble Theatre Co.); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare in the Squares); Richard III for Shakespeare (Tobacco Factory, Bristol); Rough Crossing (Vienna’s English Theatre); The Trap (Clapham Omnibus); The Little Prince (The Bike Shed, Exeter); Killer Joe (Bristol Old Vic); Mother Goose (Exeter Northcott); Twelfth Night, King Lear and The Taming of the Shrew (Creation); The Picture of Dorian Gray (European tour); The Lady’s Not for Burning and Out of Bounds (Finborough Theatre); 1:36:2600 (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Trafalgar Studios); and Macbeth (UK tour). TV credits include: Scoop, The Pembrokeshire Murders, Abba, Post Code, EastEnders, Keith Lemon’s Fit, Whistleblower, Torchwood, Mrs David, The Great Escape, The Wrong Sea, Double Top, Dead Cat and Poirot: Evil Under the Sun. Film credits include: The Keith Lemon Film. Radio credits include: Crossparty, Stagefright, We Are Not The BBC and Springheel’d Jack.
Simon Manyonda (John Proctor)
For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: Romeo and Juliet. Other theatre credits: Word-Play (Royal Court); The Clinic (Almeida Theatre); Far Away (Donmar Warehouse); Actually (Trafalgar Studios); Alys, Always (Bridge Theatre); The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse); Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre); King Lear (The Old Vic); Giving (Hampstead Theatre); Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, King Lear (National Theatre); Wildefire (The Hampstead Theatre); Red Peppers (Old Red Lion); A Midsummer Night’s Dreaming (RSC/Brooklyn Academy of Music); Julius Caesar (RSC); All Night I Dream of Being Good (The Yard); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith); The Mamba (Leeds Playhouse); Greenland, Welcome To Thebes (Royal National Theatre); Antony and Cleopatra (Liverpool Playhouse). Television credits include: Eric (Netflix); Pennyworth Season 2 and 3, (Warner Horizon for Amazon); Van Der Valk (ITV); The Bay Series 1 and 2 (ITV 1); His Dark Materials (Bad Wolf); King Lear (Amazon and BBC); Shakespeare and Hathaway, Doctor Who, Holby City (BBC); Uncle (Baby Cow for BBC3); Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories (Sid Gentle Films for Sky Arts); Suspects (Newman Street Productions); Whitechapel Series 3 (Carnival). Film credits include: Northern Comfort (Netop Films); Bank of Dave (Netflix); Rye Lane (DJ Films); The Witches (Warner Bros. Studios); Undergods (Black Dog Films); In Fabric (Rook Films); The Current War (Bazelevs Production); Jawbone (EMU Films); World War Z (Paramount); Julius Caesar (RSC/Illuminations); How It’s Done (Emperor’s New Films).
Alexandra Mathie (Rebecca Nurse)
trained at LAMDA. Extensive theatre credits include: Constant Companions (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough/New Vic Stoke on Trent); Too Much World at Once (Box of Tricks/Tour, Angela (made during Lockdown for the Royal Lyceum Theatre), Amadeus, House & Garden (National Theatre); All I Want is One Night (Wilton’s Music Hall, Hope Street Mill, off Broadway); Joan Eardley: A Private View (Heroica Theatre Company); The Air That Carries Weight, The Unconquered, Wit (CATS Best Performer Award); Memory of Water (Stellar Quines); The Girl Next Door, Roundelay, Neighbourhood Watch, Dear Uncle, My Wonderful Day (Stephen Joseph Private Fears in Public Places, Drowning on Dry Land (Alan Ayckbourn – Scarborough, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Tour, off Broadway); Macbeth, Orpheus Descending, Antigone, The Vortex, See How They Run, Separate Tables (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Cockpit, Age of Arousal, Romeo & Juliet, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, A Listening Heaven (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); The Crucible (Regent’s Park Theatre); The Diary of Anne Frank (Birmingham Rep.) Television includes Stuart: A Life Backwards (Neal Street Productions); regular appearances on Coronation Street and Doctors. Many radio appearances, most recently in Miss Nobody, Cocoon, Short Works: Island, Rage; Stone; The Midwich Cuckoos, The Driver’s Seat, A Sudden Surge, Orfeo, The Last Chronicles of Barset, A Small House at Allington, Howard’s End, Sense and Sensibility.
Giullianna Martinez (Tituba)
A London-based American-Colombian Actress and graduate of The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She recently debuted her first written work and one-woman show, HóPe, at the Brighton Fringe which was nominated for an Off West End (Offie) Award. As a Latinx artist, she is passionate about diversifying theatre and expanding Latinx narratives. Recent credits include Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The White Wedding Dress at the Liverpool Everyman. She is a Finalist for the Latine Global Casting Society (CSA) Call.
Laura Pyper (Ann Putnam/Sarah Good) Theatre credits include: A View from the Bridge (York Theatre Royal & Royal & Derngate); Gaslight (Salisbury Playhouse); Torch Song Trilogy (Menier Chocolate Factory); Punk Rock (Lyric Hammersmith/Tour); Troilus and Cressida (The Globe Theatre); Don Juan In Soho (Donmar Warehouse); Blackwater Angel (Finborough Theatre); The Pot Of Broth, Camino Real, The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs, The Factory Girls (Samuel Beckett Theatre); Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Theatre Space); Eleemosynary (Trinity Players). Film credits include: Isle of Dogs (Isle of Dogs Films); Reign Of Fire (Spyglass Entertainment); The Hitchhiker’s Game (Cowardly Lion); Size Matters; Headrush (Zanzibar Productions); Kira. Television credits include: Father Brown, The Missing, Emma, Spooks, Doctors, Silent Witness, Holby City (BBC); The Secret, The Bill, Demons, (ITV); 13 Steps Down (Beacon Television); The IT Crowd, Omagh (Channel 4); Hex II (Sine Ltd/ Sky One); Bachelor’s Walk (RTE1); Padraig and Nadia (TG4). Commercials include: Hello Fresh.
Sid Sagar (Reverend Hale) is an actor, playwright and screenwriter. He won an Eastern Eye Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Starry Messenger in the West End. As a writer, he is under commission to the Almeida Theatre, Middle Child and BBC Radio 4, and developing TV projects with Mammoth Screen, Slam Films and Sky Studios. For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: hang (Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse). Other theatre includes: Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (Playhouse Theatre, West End); The Father and the Assassin (National Theatre); The Book of Dust: Le Belle Sauvage and Julius Caesar (Bridge Theatre); The Invisible Hand and White Teeth (Kiln Theatre); The Starry Messenger (Wyndham’s Theatre, West End); Queen Anne (RSC/Theatre Royal Haymarket); The Tempest, Cymbeline, The Oresteia, The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe); Treasure (Finborough Theatre); The History Boys (UK Tour); True Brits (HighTide/Edinburgh/Bush Theatre); Eternal Love (English Touring Theatre/Shakespeare’s Globe); Orpheus and Eurydice (National Youth Theatre). Television includes: Big Mood; CBeebies: Twelfth Night; CBeebies: As You Like It; Best Interests; Slow Horses; The Capture; Anatomy of a Scandal; Trying; A Discovery of Witches; Unprecedented; Silent Witness; Wild Bill; Press; EastEnders; Strike: Career of Evil; The Hollow Crown; The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies. Film includes: The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford; The Batman; Belfast; Death on the Nile; Cruella; Dolittle; Artemis Fowl; Murder on the Orient Express; Ready Player One. Radio includes: Siddhartha; The Wire Cutters; The Certificate; Dangerous Liaisons; This is Your Country Now Too: Vijay; Ecco.
Rose Shalloo (Abigail Williams)
Theatre credits include: A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic); The Way Old Friends Do (West End/UK tour); The Selfish Giant (West End); A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer (National Theatre); Malory Towers (UK tour); Fiddler on the Roof (Chichester). Television credits include: Holby City, Call the Midwife, The Five, The Scandalous Lady W. Film credits include: Untitled (Feature Film directed by Bong Joon-ho), Emma (Working Title directed by Autumn de Wilde).
Mark Weinman (Thomas Putnam)
Studied Drama at the University of Manchester. Theatre credits include: Wildfire Road (Sheffield Theatres), Captain Amazing (Soho/Live/UK Tour), So Here We Are (Royal Exchange), Prime Time (Royal Court), Plastic (Old Red Lion), Sitting (Arcola), Mr Noodles (Royal Exchange), The Hairy Ape (Southwark Playhouse), Big Aftermath (Atc/Summer Hall), Edmond (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Barrow Hill (Finborough Theatre), The Emperor Jones (National Theatre), Still Killing Time And Eating Ice Cream On Gaza Beach (Soho Theatre), Fastburn (Kneehigh/Nyt), Herons (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Step 9 Of 12 (New Britannia), Sandy 123 (The Roundhouse), Amphibians (Bridewell Theatre). Television/Film Credits Include: The Radleys (Sky), Criminal Record (Apple TV), Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (Marvel/Disney), I May Destroy You (BBC/HBO), After Life, The One, Falling For Figaro (Netflix), Press, Sitting, The Salisbury Poisonings, Roadkill, The Gamechangers, Episodes (BBC), Sex Ed (Stan & Lola Films), Back, Humans, The People Next Door, The Guilt Trip (Ch4), Stand Up Sketch Show S1-3 (ITV2). Mark is also founder of The Ten, a not-for-profit mentorship programme for actors from underrepresented backgrounds and communities.
Millicent Wong (Mary Warren)
Theatre credits include: Sputnik Sweetheart (Arcola Theatre); Orlando (Garrick Theatre); Henry V (Donmar Warehouse); Athena (The Yard Theatre); Afterlife (National Theatre); The Doctor (Duke of York’s Theatre); The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Bridge Theatre); The King of Hell’s Palace (Hampstead Theatre); Pah-La (Royal Court Theatre); Six Degrees of Separation, Macbeth, Richard III, A Streetcar Named Desire, A View From the Bridge, As You Like It, Closer, The Three Sisters (RCSSD); Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Beauty World (Dick Lee Entertainment). Television credits include: Douglas is Cancelled (ITV); Dal Y Mellt (Vox Pictures); Silent Witness (BBC); Annika (Alibi/UKTV); Dracula (Heartwood Films). Film credits include I Used to Be Famous (Netflix).
Sargon Yelda (Reverend Parris)
Theatre credits include: Private Lives, The Band’s Visit (The Donmar Warehouse); Hex, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Dara, Emperor And Galilean, Mother Courage And Her Children, Antony and Cleopatra (The National Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); Fanny and Alexander, King Lear (Old Vic); Human Animals, The Internet Is Serious Business (Royal Court); Forget Me Not (Bush Theatre); Incognito (Hightide Festival/Newcastle Live/Bush Theatre); Moby Dick, The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (Arcola/Simple 8); Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, The Tempest (RSC); When The Rain Stops Falling (Almeida Theatre); Stovepipe (National Theatre/Bush Theatre); Salt Meets Wound (Theatre 503). TV credits include: Treason (Binocular Productions for Netflix); Dead Pixels, Dead Pixels 2 (Various Artists Limited for E4); People Just Do Nothing (BBC Three); Endeavour (Mammoth Screen for ITV); Strike: The Silkworm, The Cuckoo’s Calling (Bronte Film and Television for BBC One); Innocent (TXTV); Zen: VENDETTA (BBC/PBS); Compulsion (Size 9/ITV); Midnight Man (Carnival), Saddam’s Tribe (World Productions). Film credits include: Close (Jewson Film); Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times; Spectre (EON Productions); Dead Cat (Low Fat Films). Radio credits include: Kitchen Confidential (Somethin’ Else, BBC Radio 4); Radio Drama Company (BBC Radio 1); Look Who’s Back, The Afghan and the Penguin, The Casper Logue Affair (BBC Radio 4).
Arthur Miller (Writer 1915-2005) was born in New York City and studied at the University of Michigan. His plays include The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944), All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1964), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), The Archbishop’s Ceiling (1977), The American Clock (1980) and Playing for Time. Later plays include Two-Way Mirror (Elegy for a Lady and Some Kind of Love Story) (1982), Danger: Memory! (1987), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), Broken Glass (1994), Mr. Peters’ Connections (1998), Resurrection Blues (2002), and Finishing the Picture (2004). Other works include Focus, a novel (1945), The Misfits, a screenplay (1960), and the texts for In Russia (1969), In the Country (1977), and Chinese Encounters (1979), three books in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath. Memoirs include Salesman in Beijing (1984), and Timebends, an autobiography (1988). Short fiction includes the collection I Don’t Need You Anymore (1967), the novella, Homely Girl, a Life (1995) and Presence: Stories (2007). Miller was awarded the Avery Hopwood Award for Playwriting at University of Michigan in 1936. He twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, received two Emmy awards and three Tony Awards for his plays, as well as a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. Futher awards include an Obie award, a BBC Best Play Award, the George Foster Peabody Award, a Gold Medal for Drama from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Literary Lion Award from the New York Public Library, the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Algur Meadows Award. He was named Jefferson Lecturer for the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2001, and awarded the 2002 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters and the 2003 Jerusalem Prize. Miller also received honorary degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University and was awarded the Prix Moliere of the French theatre, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Lifetime Achievement Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Anthony Lau (Director) is Associate Artistic Director at Sheffield Theatres. He was previously Associate Artistic Director at RTYDS, Laboratory Associate Director at Nuffield Southampton Theatres and trained as a director at LAMDA and at the National Theatre Studio. For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: Miss Saigon (co-director), The Good Person of Szechwan, Rock/Paper/Scissors (winner, Best Director, UK Theatre Awards), Anna Karenina, The Band Plays On (co-director). Other theatre credits include: The Shadow Factory (revival), Juicy and Delicious (Nuffield Southampton Theatres); A Better Man and The Cherry Orchard (parallel production, Young Vic); The Common Land (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Dreaming in America (Shoreditch Town Hall); Still Life/Red Peppers (Old Red Lion); The Taste of Us (HighTide Festival); I Am a Camera (Southwark Playhouse).
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