Brian Beacom

WHY is a play about witchcraft so relevant today?

Do we live in a world that pronounces judgement on innocents, declare them guilty of unimaginable evil and then have them murdered?

The story of the Salem Witch trials is set in the late 17th century in colonial Massachusetts.

It resulted from the confusions surrounding a mix of mischievous girls’ imaginations running riot, laced with utter malevolence.

Fomer Coronation Street star Charlie Condou, who plays the Reverend Hale in the play, argues The Crucible is very much a play of the moment.

“Arthur Miller’s writing is so very reflective of what’s happening with social media and information spreads,” he maintains.

“Just look at the intensity surrounding fake news. Someone says something and the next thing you know it’s being believed.”

Charlie, who played radiographer Marcus in the Street adds; “The way bombings are carried out in the name of religion right now brings this play right into the moment.”

The Crucible’s opening scenes reveal a group of teenage girls dancing in the woods. This dancing was regarded as tantamount to dancing with the Devil.

The Manchester bomber killed young women because he considered them unholy. The madness of judgement exists today, just as it did in Salem when fourteen women, five men and two dogs were executed for witchcraft.

“This play is a testament to Arthur Miller’s writing,” says Charlie. “He understood how human beings can interpret actions to their own ends.

“The Reverend Hale goes on this big journey adamant he is going to find witches in Salem and then realises the children are lying and he’s made a huge mistake.

“He tries to claw it back, but he can’t and he ends up wracked with guilt at all the hangings he’s caused.”

Charlie adds; “I have a great speech at the end of the play when I talk about religion and faith, and how it’s a big mistake to cling to a faith that kills people.”

Arthur Miller’ story about witchhunts was formed by his experiences in America in the Fifties.

The Crucible, first performed in 1953, is an allegory for McCarthyism, when the US government determined to rid the world of suspected communists.

Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of Contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

“Yet, you don’t need to know about the politics Miller was dealing with at the time,” says Charlie.

“You can take this play as the gripping drama that it is.”

The actor is loving the chance to immerse himself in such a powerful role.

“I always wanted to act since I was a kid. And when you get parts such as this it’s fantastic.”

Yet, acting demands a lot. And not just the work done on stage. There’s being judged. Being appraised.

“It’s a constant battle,” he admits. “There is a lot of rejection. Every now and then you go up for a job you really want and you don’t get it. It can be soul destroying.

“Yet, I think that’s part of the business. And you have to remember sometimes you don’t get the part for all sorts of reasons. You may not look right sitting alongside the person who would be playing your wife . . .”

Does he have a problem with typecasting? Charlie played a gay man in Corrie for five years.

“Sometimes. I did Unforgotten for ITV last year in which I played a gay man. But then I appeared in You Me and the Apocalypse, which was a very different part.”

He adds, grinning; “But typecasting isn’t always a problem. Look at Robert De Nero. He’s played the same part for the past twenty years and it hasn’t done him any harm.”

Did the unexpected storyline play a part? Charlie’s radiographer character Marcus was a contented gay man, one minute having an affair with sewing machinist Sean, the next thing viewers had to accept him trying to see through hairdresser Maria’s summer frock.

“I was quite against it at first because Marcus is very comfortable with his sexuality,” he says of the storyline.

“But I spoke to the producer Phil Collinson, who is gay, and one of the writers, who is also gay and all three of us happened to know men who are gay, and had identified as gay, and are now married to a woman, with kids.”

He adds, smiling; “It’s not particularly common, but it does happen. And the thing about soap is you are always dramas are always finding a way to be creative.”

Not half. “You only have to think of the number of people who are murdered and buried under the patio. So in the great scheme of things, someone falling love with their best friend is not so bad.”

Charlie’s main motivation to leave Coronation Street was a need to spend more time in London with his husband and their two children.

“I was spending week after week in Manchester. And you never get an advance schedule, which means you never know what you are doing one day to the next.

“If I lived in Manchester and my kids lived there it would have been so much easier.

“But after four and a half years of commuting every week it was all getting a bit much. I felt if I were to commit to the Street I would have been there for the next twenty years, but I decided to leave there and then.

“The producers were great about it. They said they wouldn’t kill me off. And I haven’t regretted the decision to leave at all. And I haven’t stopped working since, which is a huge relief. A lot of people leave soap and struggle.”

You suggest he seems balanced for an actor and he laughs.

“Are a lot of actors unbalanced? I suppose they are. I think a lot of people can be attracted to this industry because they have low self-esteem, and if they are not getting what they want out of the inside they need it from the outside.

“But I never went into this to want to show off. I’m happy to be in the background. So I suppose I am fairly balanced.”

Yet, who’d have thought he’d one day be a witchhunter? “Indeed,” he says, smiling. “But as much as I love the role, it’s a toughie, and you do need to have a beer after every performance.”

· The Crucible, the Theatre Royal, June 12 – 17.