A fired-up version of 'The Crucible'
JULIE YORK COPPENS
Theater Writer

It's a monument of the American stage, crafted by our most revered playwright. A story of sin, conformity, paranoia and martyrdom, set in an historical community defined by religious practice. A tragedy of classical dimensions, with well-established connections to mid-20th-century politics.

It's "The Crucible."

What's Matthew Cosper doing directing it?

"I was thrilled to be asked," says Cosper, 25, the Charlotte theater world's most iconoclastic director, whose staging of Arthur Miller's 1952 drama based on the Salem, Mass., witch trials opens this weekend at Theatre Charlotte. As it happens, Cosper -- known for his work with contemporary and experimental plays, and for his funky fashion sense -- has wanted to direct "The Crucible" for years. He's trimmed the script, pared down the visuals and restrained his unpaid actors from excessive emoting. The result, he hopes, is a tight, powerful piece in which Miller's big ideas speak for themselves.

Miller wrote the play as an allegory to McCarthyism and the congressional hunt for communists. Cosper, though, is struck more by the characters' personal relationships than the script's political undertones.

"You have to respect (`The Crucible'), because it is a classic, and it is for a reason. It's a great piece of writing," Cosper says. "But if you approach it with too much reverence, you create a museum piece ... You try to forget that it has that reputation, and make it something that's alive.

"We haven't done anything radical with it," the director adds, "but it definitely is not the production you would have seen when it was written. It can't be."

For one thing, Cosper adds, "Audiences today -- we can't sit that long." PREVIEW

The Crucible

Matthew Cosper directs Arthur Miller's tragedy inspired by two American witch hunts.