A powerful play about a witch hunt will be brought to a Dorchester stage.

Dorchester Drama is taking theatre-goers back to Salem, to Puritan New England in 1692, where sickness was attributed to the work of the devil, and accusations of witchcraft were used to settle scores.

This month Dorchester Drama will be performing Arthur Miller's mighty play The Crucible at the Corn Exchange in Dorchester.

Club member Fran Sansom said: "Dorchester Drama likes to shake it up a little, and after a year that has seen us revive N.F.Simpson’s pre-Goon absurdist play Was He Anyone?, and celebrate the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s death with Austensibility, a dramatised reading celebrating her life and work, the time has come for a weighty play befitting our big autumn production in Dorchester’s Corn Exchange."

The play was inspired by the McCarthy era when a fear of communist influence in 1950s America led to obsessive investigations to root out communist 'subversives'.

The play is being performed by a large cast ranging in age from nine years old to those enjoying retirement.

New and not so new members have been welcomed to Dorchester Drama and are a 'crack' back stage team has been assembled to ensure smooth running.

Lee Stroud is directing The Crucible.

n The Crucible will be performed by Dorchester Drama at the Corn Exchange, Dorchester, on Thursday November 16, Friday November 17 and Saturday November 18. Evening performances will be each night at 7 pm and there will be a Saturday matinee at 2pm. Tickets will be available from Trinity Stores, Trinity Street, Dorchester, or from the box office on 01305 268692. Tickets are £9 in advance and £10 on the door and cost £7 for under 18s.