NEVER ones to run away from something new and challenging, Dorchester Youth Theatre are back on stage next week with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

This unsettling tale, set in 1692, tells the story of how the small community of Salem, Massachusetts is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice after the girls in the village ‘confess’ to using witchcraft to get what they want.

One of the girls, Abigail Williams, has had an affair with married man John Proctor and says she is in love with him. But by accusing and implicating him in the dark deeds, she risks bringing him to trial and then to the gallows.

The play is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations and Miller wrote it as a condemnation of the McCarthy communist witch hunts.

The leading roles are played by Chris Hoare (John Proctor), Izzy Raws (Elizabeth Proctor), Maisie Dean (Abigail Williams), Robin Hollis (Deputy Governor Danforth), Dan Simons (Reverend Hale) and Poppy Hymas (Mercy Lewis).

Staging The Crucible comes less than a year after DYT won a place at the finals of the National Theatre’s Connections scheme and director Jo Simons is using that success as a springboard to get the seniors to do more challenging plays.

Jo said: “It’s a two-hour play and a ‘grown-up’ one that they haven’t done before so it’s a big ask but as ever they are rising to the challenge.

“I have wanted to do The Crucible for a long time because I did it when I was in a youth theatre 30-plus years ago. It was such an amazing experience I wanted my youth theatre here to do it too. I wanted the seniors to do it before the older ones went off to university.”

She added that as well as having a long play to memorise, the performers also have to come to terms with the attitudes and accents of 1600s Massachusetts.

“It is a fantastic story but it is based on real people and you can read the transcripts of the court case on the internet, said Jo. “It’s a challenge to do because it’s not just the language and the accents, it’s the way people thought and acted back then.

“But my seniors have been really enthusiastic and have loved doing it.”

The Crucible is at Dorchester Corn Exchange in High East Street on March 13 and 14 at 7pm. Tickets are £5 plus concessions and the play is suitable for anyone over the age of 12. Call 01305 266926 for details and bookings.