The Salem witch trials of 1692 have inspired some great works of art, namely Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, one of the most famous plays in American theater. Miller’s 1953, Tony-winning classic was an indictment of religion and puritanism in colonial America that reflected the communist scare and McCarthysim of the 1950s. It, in turn, inspired a movie, opera, and even two recent ballets created in the United Kingdom.
Choreographer and Ballet 314 co-founder Robert Poe interprets that time period in his own ballet, The Accused, which runs May 29 & 30 alongside Lark Ascending and Envy of Angels at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts (425 S. Lindbergh). Poe uses The Crucible as source material, but he also draws from Maryse Conde’s 1986 French novel, I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem, to highlight the little-known figure of Tituba, the first woman accused of witchcraft during the trials.
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“I’m very interested in taking stories that aren’t necessarily always presented in a ballet fashion,” Poe says. “Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and other ballets are often European fairy tales, but I don’t see a lot of American history shown in ballets. This was an opportunity to create the things that I wanted to see more of.”
Details of Tituba’s life prior to her enslavement in America are unclear. Historians agree she was born an indigenous woman either in Africa, Barbados, or near Venezuela. She was purchased and brought to Salem Village, Massachusetts, by Rev. Samuel Parris to live and work in his home. After a group of girls, led by Abigail Williams, mysteriously falls ill, Tituba is accused of using magic and voodoo to harm them. This led to a mass hysteria in which some 150 men and women were accused of witchcraft and devil worship—20 were hanged. Tituba was arrested and forced into a confession by Parris. She served 13 months in prison and was later freed.
Though Tituba is a catalyst for the events and a symbol of racism, she’s often relegated to a minor character in fictional adaptations. But in Poe’s retelling, she’s at the center of the drama. Tituba comes from a loving family in Barbados, and after the death of her parents, she’s taken under the wing of a spiritual healer and mentor named Mama Yaya.
“We know nothing about that woman,” Poe says. “I wanted to flesh out her character. So we see and learn about Tituba through flashbacks and dream sequences when she’s away in jail, and we understand a little bit more about who she is. I want her to be an empowered figure versus someone who’s pitied.”
Poe incorporates most of the principal characters from the source materials, including John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Rev. John Hale and Betty Parris, and expands some of their roles in the story, too.
“John Proctor was one of the main characters, but I feel like I don’t understand his relationship with his wife, Elizabeth,” Poe says. “So we have a more physical Elizabeth Proctor in our version. She counsels her husband, and he seeks her advice, as well as forgiveness. We see Abigail, but we don’t necessarily get the idea that she was a servant in the Proctor household. We just know that there was some sort of dalliance between her and John. We see little about who she is and why she would even be the ringleader for all of this chaos that ensued. So we get to see her and her loneliness and her acting out. The ballet really gives more context for why any of the events would happen.”
For the ballet’s score, Poe pieced together music by George Fenton—composer of the 1996 film version of The Crucible—as well as Benjamin Britten, Adam Schoenberg, Grazyna Bacewicz, Joby Talbot, and Grammy-winning St. Louis native Kevin Puts.
“There are a lot of strings,” says Poe. “I think string instruments can be very useful to convey urgency and uneasiness. There are guttural moans and layered rhythms on top of each other. I wanted something that shows beauty and discontentment. The audience should be a little agitated.”
While The Crucible was a critique of religious fanaticism and abuse of power, Poe says his ballet looks beyond the obvious villains in the witch hunt.
“In our ballet, it’s the patriarchy,” Poe says. “The horribly oppressive society. When you have a group of young people so oppressed, this is what happens when they suddenly start seeking attention that they don’t know what to do with. That’s the theme and moral.”
Poe says he hopes to take the ballet on a college tour in the future and use it as a “learning tool.”
“In a time where our history is being distorted and rewritten, I want the audience to stay hungry and question everything,” Poe says. “I want them to watch this and see their own lives on stage. I want them to find their individuality through the ballet, so they don’t become wrapped up in the hysterics like this community did.”
