A 1953 play written by Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witchcraft trials that took place in Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as a response to McCarthyism, when the US
government blacklisted accused communists. Miller himself was to be questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of "contempt of Congress" for failing to identify others present at meetings he had attended. It was first performed at the
Martin Beck Theater on Broadway on January 22, 1953. The reviews of the first production, which Miller felt was stylized and too
cold, were largely hostile, although The New
York Times noted "a powerful play in a driving performance." Nonetheless, the production won the 1953 "Best Play" Tony Award. A year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic. Today it is studied in high schools and universities, because of its status as a revolutionary work of theater and for its allegorical
relationship to testimony given before the House Committee On Un-American Activities during the 1950s. It is a central work in the canon of American
drama.
