Review: Abigail Williams at Sydney Theatre Company

Review by Anja Bless

When a male playwright only describes the female antagonist as “a strikingly beautiful girl” you know there is more to the story. Making its Wharf Theatre debut at Sydney Theatre Company as part of the HERStory Art Festival, Abigail Williams is a one-woman show that gives a chance for the villainess of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible to share her side of the story.

Performed by Ebony Tucker on a sparsely decorated black stage (production design by Angelina Daniel), Abigail Williams explores the constraints and injustices experienced by women and young girls in 17th Century Salem, Massachusetts, as they try to navigate a patriarchal, conservative, and punitive society. Tucker largely plays the titular role of Abigail, but also switches into different characters such as Abigail’s friends, her forboding uncle Reverend Parris, her employer Elizabeth Proctor, and lover John Proctor. Tucker’s performance is captivating, she exudes the restlessness and loneliness of Abigail, the naivety of her friends, and the power that men hold in the Salem portrayed in Miller’s original work. Her vocalisations and physicality makes it easy to differentiate between each character, without losing the sensation that it really is Abigail telling the story.

The script and direction by Rebecca McNamee also lends to this style of autobiographical storytelling. As Tucker moves through the space we can almost see the pathway of Abigail unfold through her teenage years, her sense of loneliness, and her growing awareness of the promises of love and the cruelties of injustice. Abigail’s conservative Pilgrim clothing is slowly shed along with her loss of innocence, and as her own sense of autonomy builds. Her clothes eventually scatter the stage as the weight of her past leads her to don the ruthless character that she is renowned for in Miller’s play. The lighting (Chris Milburn & Chaii-Ki Chapman) and sound design (Keelan Ellis and Madeleine Picard) likewise help to transition between the scenes of Abigail’s life. From open meadows in the sun, to nights spent by the fire tending to the Proctor’s babe.

In an almost faultless production there are only a few hiccups. Some sound cues appear to get missed which briefly disrupts the consistent flow of Tucker’s performance, notably just as the final lights come down. Towards the end of the play, as Abigail is seduced by John Proctor, McNamee also has Tucker break the fourth wall and her storytelling to highlight the parallels between Abigail’s experience of unequal power in her relationship with John Proctor and the Australian case of Chris Dawson and his affair with this babysitter. While it is a powerful reminder that the exploitation of young women by older men continues in contemporary times, the placement of this scene in the middle of Abigail’s story was somewhat jarring and may have been better placed as a closure for the performance.

Unfortunately, Abigail Williams, originally conceived by McNamee while at NIDA, only has a limited run at Sydney Theatre Company. But would be unsurprising to see it return to the stage again soon, it is clear that McNamee and Tucker as a team have far more stories they can tell.