Metro Theater Company, which most of us think of as presenting children's theater, is bringing us "Afflicted: Daughters of Salem", a play that's aimed at "adults and young people age 10 and up", per their website. The Laurie Brooks play is, in many ways, a prequel to "The Crucible", dealing with the group of young women who met together secretly and in defiance of the rigidity of the community of Salem Massachusetts in the late 1600s.
The four young women, a younger cousin and Tituba, a slave owned by the family of two of the girls, are swept up in religious discomfort, rumors and mass hysteria, a combination worthy of today's tabloid topics. The story is a complicated one, and the exposition necessary to bring the audience up to speed tends to drag things sometimes in the first half of the play. This is compounded by occasional difficulties with blurring the dialogue or overriding it with Tituba's drumming.
But the acting is spot on, with a group of young but experienced young actresses. They're led by Jennifer Theby-Quinn as Abigail, an orphan who works in the household of her uncle, a pastor. The pastor owns Tituba – real cognitive dissonance to the modern brain: A minister in Massachusetts that owns a slave. Hmm. The imposing Tituba is Jacqueline Thompson. Ann, Abigail's bestie, is played by Taylor Steward. Samantha Warren is the fearful Mary, the most pious of the gathering, and Alicia Smith is Mercy, a worrier like Mary. The role of Betty Parris, the young cousin who seems to be the monkey wrench in things, is played by Emily Jackoway.
It's a good ensemble, all quite natural and all handling Lou Bird's interesting if drably-colored costumes with grace and enthusiasm .The fine set in the theater at the Missouri History Museum is by David Blake, and the lighting designer Page Seber.
Several matinees on weekdays, to make it easier to see this thought-provoking work whose depictions of what a community depending on gossip has happen is more relevant than we might have realized some months ago.
Afflicted: Daughters of Salem
Metro Theater Company
through March 22
Missouri History Museum
Lindell at de Baliviere