This is part of an ongoing series of theater reviews of local high school productions, written by high school students, that will appear on AnnArbor.com. This week, Greenhills School's Katherine Krauss (see bio at end of story) reviews Huron High School's production of "The Crucible," which opened this past weekend, and continues its run on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

With Halloween upon us, it's only appropriate that the idea of witchcraft, and all the American lore surrounding it, be explored.

In the world of theatre, one of the most popular ways to do this is by performing Arthur Miller’s renowned play "The Crucible." However, on Friday night, The Huron Players did much more than explore fantasy and voodoo; they did, in the words of Judge Danforth himself, “melt down all concealment” and brought to the audience a true image of Puritan Massachusetts during the witchcraft hysteria of 1692.

The play opens with the supposed “witching” of the Reverend Parris’ daughter, Betty, by the family's servant from Barbados, Tituba. A visiting minister (Reverend Hale) arrives to heal her, upon which Betty, her cousin Abigail, and all the girls involved in Tituba’s voodoo rituals decry half the town for having "witched" them. Among the accused is Elizabeth Proctor, wife to John Proctor, with whom Abigail had an affair, and with whom she is still in love. Upon hearing this charge, Proctor faces a heart-wrenching decision: will he testify against Abigail, and admit to lechery to save his wife, or will he let his cold and unforgiving wife hang for witchcraft?

Clearly the number of factions and conspiracies of one group of people against another in this play are numerous, calling for very developed characters and finely honed relationships between them. Every member of the company performed astonishingly well Friday night. Every character was realistic and very true to the unique time period in which "The Crucible" is set.

Particular scenes that stood out to me were the second scene in the first act, between Elizabeth Proctor (Chloe Biermann) and John Proctor (Micah Warschausky), and their last scene together in the second act. Both actors truly enveloped me in the time period, and the raw, austere life the Puritans led, without losing a sense of the drama of the play. That said, the drama in the play was frequently lost to the need to be completely true to the characters, and I felt that the characters should have been dramatized a bit more, merely because they were on the stage.

However, the majority of the play captured the true essence of Miller’s language with success, from the acting to the set. I found the set to be interesting, as the platform upon which the actors performed was slanted, as if they were performing on top of a roof. I appreciated the artistic choice made by producer Bj Wallingford, for the entire play is about slanting the truth, and the set literally reflected that. The set was also appropriately austere, as was the lighting (designed by Michael Dalman).

The only “technical” element I found to be overdone was the addition of a choreographed voodoo scene between Tituba and Abigail at the beginning of the play. If Miller had wanted the audience to know whether Abigail had truly engaged in witchcraft in the woods (and the rumors of this told in the play were not just factions of Puritan Salem exploiting Abigail to exile her uncle Reverend Parris), then he would have included this scene in the play itself.

Overall, though, director Pam Cardell and her cast have a show to be very proud of. Not only did they use Miller’s rich text to provide a hauntingly accurate image of Puritan Massachusetts, but they used this image to explore the factions and pettiness that drove the entire province mad with cries of witchcraft.

Katherine Krauss is currently a junior at Greenhills School. She has performed in numerous plays and musicals, her favorite being "The Crucible," and has been a member of her school’s competitive public speaking team.

The aim of AnnArbor.com's student-review program is to recognize, and provide more coverage for, the accomplished theatrical work that's happening in our schools while also providing opportunities for student writers with an interest in arts criticism. To encourage objectivity, our student writers will always review shows from schools other than their own. To learn more about the student-review program, contact Jenn McKee at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546.