KatharineD Proves that The Crucible is the Most Acclaimed London Play in Five Years

Responding to popular demand, guest blogger KatharineD looks back five years to compare The Crucible’s reception by critics to London productions over the past five years.  

 

As a follow up to yesterday’s post, comparing other play reviews to The Crucible, I decided to track back further, in the search for another play scoring six 5 star ratings in the major English press. Five years was the time period I set for the overall search, July 2009- 3rd July 2014.  Once again, The Guardian was the starting point- if Michael Billington gave a production 5 stars, I then cross-checked firstly with the highly respected reviewers from The Telegraph or The Independent to see if they matched.

There’s a good reason for Michael Billington’s reviews to be the one’s against which the others  be measured- he’s been The Guardian‘s drama critic since October 1971, a period of over forty years, and is Britain’s longest serving theatre critic, receiving an OBE in 2013 for services to the theatre. He’s written books about Peggy Ashcroft, Tom Stoppard, and Alan Ayckbourn, as well as critical studies on British theatre, and also teaches courses in theatre. Billington is the official authorised biographer of Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, which was first published in 1996.

I picked up the search in 2013, working backwards, and thought I had a contender in Chimerica, a new play in May 2013 by Lucy Kirkwood, which won five Olivier Awards this year, including best new play. It scored a highly creditable four 5 stars and

two 4’s.

March 2012 began the run of the hit comedy, One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Corden, well known as one of the original cast of The History Boys. It scored very highly also- four 5 stars, and two 4’s. In fairness I have to report that the play achieved a feat The Crucible failed to manage, namely a 5 star review from Quentin Letts at the Daily Mail.

Arthur Miller seems to be generally well staged and received in London- All My Sons ran from May 2010, starring a high profile cast; David Suchet, Stephen Campbell Moore and Zoë Wanamaker, but could only manage two 5 stars and some 4’s.

The search completed, I can report that there hasn’t been another play in the last five years to match the universal acclaim The Crucible received from the top six reviewers, the closest coming from this year’s other Arthur Miller staging, A View From The Bridge at the Young Vic.