Two reasons for me to listen to this play right now: 1. there is a lot of talk about witch hunts right now and 2. I just read Carl Sagan last week and he referred to this play and to witch hunts (the medieval type, but also the red scare under McCarthy) quite a lot. The play makes a clear point about the rapid loss of common sense, how scaring people makes them fairly easily forget about right and wrong and the role of religion in this particular case. The MC Proctor has been yelling in the beginning: "Where is the proof?" on several occasions, but once common sense is lost and everyone is in a panic, there seems to be no need for proof anymore.

The Crucible is a theater play that I had to read back when I was in school still, yet it hasn't let me go since then. It's basically a telling of the Salem Witch Trials but can also be understood as a comment on the communist hunt under McCarthy in the 20th century - or maybe as an example for any situation that spirals out of control eventually. I think what intrigued me so much about this play is how destructive and how quickly things can get out of hand, simply because some people are shitty, self-righteous, power-hungry, greedy or sometimes simply naive human beings. If you aren't afraid of a somewhat older language style and the topic interests you, I'd highly recommend this.