Comparing The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Drinking Companion, Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn

Comparing The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Drinking Companion, Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn

My drama class was split into four groups and each group was given a

selected scene or part from The Crucible to rehearse and act for one

piece of coursework. My group was given the end of act four and the

ending of the play. I was to play Proctor and had to think hard about

how to portray him in the section, as it was a crucial part in the

play.*

We were given Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn, a play to read and compare

with the section acted of The Crucible.

Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn is split into five plays within one,

which can be performed separately or as a whole, this is in fact very

similar to the way in which we acted The Crucible, in four sections,

acted by different people and all linked by one character. Confusions

concentrates on a number of stories which portray the lives of a

number of characters. The Crucible also has many stories in one, but

in acting it we concentrated on one that presented itself all the way

though, we made an emphasis on John Proctors story as it is a

compelling and heartfelt tale.

Confusions seemed to have a running theme of adultery in every play it

was touched upon or even made the main issue, it was also noticeable

that a lot of the time, the characters in Confusions seemed to be put

in the position to make a choice, to take the easy way out of the

dilemmas that they faced or not too. These elements are both present

in The Crucible, mainly involving John Proctor and Abigail. Abigail is

the source of the John Proctor story which gave this play depth and

excitement. Other characters that seem to make choices where Reverend

Hale, Paris and all the young girls who followed Abigail, Hale made a

choice to believe in the witchcraft in the first place but then took

the choice to back out when he realised that innocent people were