←Recommendations of ABIGAIL

This is a an urgent and compelling work of art with layers upon layers of meaning that are revealed throughout. In ABIGAIL by Sarah Tuft, the backdrop of The Crucible connects so vividly and sharply with a modern-day production of that work, bridging together two worlds that aren't so very far apart. With incredible clarity and vision, Tuft brings fresh insight to a classic work while creating a new play that entertains on multiple levels.

What a compelling piece! More than a generational disagreement, this play forces us to consider the ugly truths that sometimes lie behind our favorite art and artists ... while also taking a look at cancel culture and its implications on art. Taut writing, rich characters ... I didn't just read this play. I devoured it! Would love to see this in production!

Fantastic play. I will never look at The Crucible the same way again. This piece deals with multiple topics and relationships in a nuanced way: social media, gender and power, and the actor-director relationship and the ways it approaches - and then crosses - the line. Plus, what a great role for a young actor to delve into different worlds and spend time with the likes of Abigail Williams on the one hand and Marilyn Monroe on the other!

Wow. I will be thinking about this play for a long time. As a teenager, I had the opportunity to play Abigail in two different productions. But in the 1990s, we didn't do as much research on the author as we did on the text. As I got into college, the Miller backstory to this play really skews it even more than the historical inaccuracies. This play hits on so many more important topics as well, it left my head spinning. Just brilliant, and will leave audiences talking and debating after the performance is long over.

Absolutely brilliant and gut churningly familiar. As a young actress, I too was schooled and groomed and convinced that it was all in the spirit of great theatre. I have to think that when someone reacts strongly to this play in the negative, it's an enormous "tell". I hope this piece is performed and seen by actors everywhere, and that we all have a reckoning about how we create art.

A fine piece that shows the old classics often have troubling backstories, and that sometimes those troubles intrude on the present. Using Miller's Crucible as a foundation, the play brings out an intergenerational challenge that staging a play in our modern times can often entail. There aren't any easy answers, just some questions that we should consider.

Tuft's ingenious, gripping and very timely play takes us on the twists and turns of a contemporary production of Miller's Crucible as the show's Abigail, a YouTube influencer with no stage experience, discovers the misogyny and power imbalances in the play and production and decides to do something about it. I'd so love to see this on stage.

YES. Oh my gosh, YES. This is the story of a Hollywood director whose career has taken a #metoo hit, and who is now directing "The Crucible" on Broadway. When the young woman cast as Abigail begins researching her role, she notices the misogyny that went into its creation in the 1950s and the misogyny still present in the situation she finds herself in today. I could not love this play more. Sarah Tuft has a new fan.

In addition to creating a compelling contemporary story about sexual assault in the entertainment industry, Tuft explores thorny questions about what to do with problematic art/artists, how to escape cycles of reinforcing misogyny and excuse-making for abusers, and more. The English teacher in me most appreciates the thorough and complex critique of "The Crucible," and a disruption of it being the canonical text about the Salem Witch Trials--hammering home the utter crime of Miller taking an historical tragedy of control over women's bodies and personhoods and making it a misogynistic (and inaccurate) piece about male honor.

It's great how Sarah Tuft uses the myth of celebrity to inspire her, in a reworking of some of the themes of exploitation, abuse and the unspoken power exchanges in marriage via Arthur Miller's Crucible. Tight and slickly wrought, this play elevates contemporary characters into archetypes. Great job on "Abigail!"