The university production of the Tony Award-winning play “The Crucible” will keep the audience thinking about the issues and plot even after the production is over, said Krista Scott, assistant professor of voice and acting.

TCU’s theatre production of Arthur Miller’s play will open at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Hays Theatre.

“It is one of those shows that grabs you and doesn’t let go until you walk out of the theater, and even then, it doesn’t leave you for a while,” Scott said.

The play is a dramatization of the 1690s Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. “The Crucible” was written in the early 1950s by Arthur Miller in response to the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC, and McCarthyism, Scott said.

According to pbs.org, HUAC was formed in 1938 as an anti-Communist committee in the House of Representatives.

Scott said there are uncanny parallels when looking at the Salem Witch Trials and the 1950s hearings by HUAC.

“It is about when power labeled as morality goes wrong and wrongfully takes the lives of people who are completely innocent and are basically betrayed by their own faithfulness,” Scott said.

The production has heavy student involvement, with a large production cast, crew and staff composed of students from all academic years, Scott said.

When:

Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Where: Hays Theatre at the TCU Walsh Center

Tickets are $5 for TCU faculty, staff and students. General public tickets are $10. Tickets for all showings are still on sale.

To reserve tickets, call the Theatre TCU Box Office at 817-257-8080.