After almost 7 years the Melbourne Theatre Company enjoyed the possibility to get back its favorite actor - David Wenham ("True West", "Cyrano de Bergerac") for its 60th Anniversary Season.
For his third appearance on stage of MTC , David chose a dramatic masterpiece of Arthur Miller "The Crucible"
The classic story about the confrontation of free consciousness and the dark sides of human nature: severe 17th century, Puritan backwoods of British colonies in North America and hysteria of "witch-hunt", which terrified the whole world - the games of terrible passions and ignorance.
Priest's niece, Abigail Williams is in love with the charismatic leader of the local community, John Proctor and she wants to get rid of more fortunate rival.
Quirky and clever girl uses as her weapon the bigotry and superstition prevailing in society, and provokes notorious The Salem witch trials.
In order to save his beloved wife and friends from the absurd death, Proctor has to pay the bill for his own sins and to join an unequal battle against the ossified system.
Contrary to the popular saying, David went in this river for the second time. "The Crucible" of misty student time at the stage of Theatre Nepean at the University of Western Sydney resonated with twofold power.
But now David's fans know that twenty-five years ago a young student of acting school played the main antagonist of the play, heartless villain Danforth, who condemned to death dozens of innocent people for the sake of bureaucratic ritual.
Perhaps, this is a new word in the amazing career of David - he returned to play diametrically opposite role - raging John Proctor, a tragic hero of Salem wars for common sense.
It looks like David wanted to pump up of his fans for the summer theatrical premiere: at the ceremony of announcing the new MTC season the enigmatic actor began
his throne speech with the sudden confession.
It turns out that during his first coming in "The Crucible" 25 years ago, he drew wrinkles on his forehead in order to his sinister Danforth seemed older and more solid.
John Proctor, the courageous specimen of 2013, didn't need such makeup, of course. And it made him just a little bit more attractive. Well, sorry, mr. Danforth.
This production can truly be considered a milestone in the history of Wenhamania. It gave the couple of the most brave Russian wenhamfans a magical, very important and unforgettable personal meeting with David. In the auditorium and behind the scene ...
