TV and Radio Reviews : Miller’s “The Crucible” Will Air on KCRW-FM

If your definition of “classic” theater precludes plays that were written after, say, 1920, then L.A. Classic Theatre Works has yet to tackle any classic theater. However, it comes closer in “The Crucible” than it has in either of its other productions so far.

Though Arthur Miller’s play dates from 1952 (its Broadway premiere was in January, 1953), it is set in 1692. It requires actors who can approximate the sound of 17th-century English colonists, yet remain comprehensible to modern ears. The ability to handle the language is especially crucial in this “Crucible,” for it--like all L.A. Classic Theatre Works productions so far--is a radio show (Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m., KCRW-FM).

The most telling trait of this “Crucible” is that most of the cast, which is top-heavy with well-known Hollywood names, is difficult to recognize without a cast list. These actors have submerged their individual vocal signatures and sound very much like the residents of Salem, Mass. in 1692--or at least what we imagine these people sounded like.

To put it another way, these are performances that you would expect out of the BBC, not out of Hollywood. That the director was the BBC’s own Martin Jenkins surely had something to do with this. The BBC will, in fact, broadcast “The Crucible” eight days after KCRW does.

Stacy Keach is a stalwart John Proctor. But my ears pricked up most often at the sounds of Madolyn Smith as Abigail, the breathlessly manipulative ringleader of the bewitched witnesses, and Richard Dreyfuss as Rev. Hale, the witch-buster who undergoes the play’s most drastic change of mind. For me, the most identifiable voice was that of Georgia Brown, a real salt-of-the-earth-mother as the brave Rebecca Nurse.

The play has been judiciously trimmed, and a few interesting sound effects added, most notably the sounds of girls giggling against a forlorn wind at the beginning and end of the play. In these brief moments, the episode in the woods (which triggered the round of accusations but remains unseen in the play), is conjured without words. Generally, though, the words are this production’s top priority--and it treats them with the respect they deserve.