Kpfa - Bay Area Theater

KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Becky Nurse of Salem” at Berkeley Rep‘s Peets Theatre through January 26, 2020. Text of review (audio is slightly different and has actuality from Sarah Ruhl) The notion of witch hunt as metaphor comes from Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible,” which translated what happened in Salem in 1693 to the story of McCarthyism and those accused during the darkest days of the Red Scare in the late 1940s into the 1950’s. But while “witch hunt” is a perfectly fine metaphor, if abused by the absurdity in the White House, the real witch hunt was something else again, part of a war against sexuality and particularly, a war against women – something Miller himself stayed away from in his famous play. Playwright Sarah Ruhl tackles that aspect of the witch trials, and their contemporary meaning, in a crackling new play, “Becky Nurse of Salem,” which is enjoying its world premiere run at Berkeley Rep through January 26th. Becky Nurse of Salem didn’t happen in a vacuum. It happened b