In Arthur Miller’s drama “The Crucible,” the Salem witchcraft trials of the 1690s expose the ugliness of repression in close community life. Miller has said that he wrote the play in 1953 in response to McCarthyism and the witch-hunt tactics employed by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in his search for communists and their sympathizers. In more recent times, some might have heard the echo of Miller’s theme in the purported “vast right-wing conspiracy” to bring down the Clinton White House, and Miller himself has drawn parallels between the witch-hunts and fundamentalism in religion.

Today, without witches, communists and the Clintons to fuel hysteria, does Miller’s play still have resonance?

Yes, said Bill Raiten, director of The New Surry Theatre, which will stage “The Crucible” over the next two weekends at The Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth. But it’s not as easy as saying terrorists are the new disruption to peace and stability, he cautioned. They are on a global level, but locally Miller’s play also has something to say about day-to-day life with our neighbors.

“When you say that you are doing ‘The Crucible’ right now, people seem to think it’s because of the political atmosphere of the country,” said Raiten at a recent rehearsal. “I’m sure that was subliminally on our minds. But my real reason for wanting to do this play is that I have 30 kids in my theater class and I needed a play

with a large cast. And in working with those kids, you become aware of a bullying problem they have in school. We wanted to be helpful with this.”

Directors and teachers have used Miller’s script to teach young people about tolerance, heroism and threats to community life. The story starts offstage, where a handful of young Puritan girls disrobe in the night and dance in the moonlight. Abigail, a leader of the girl-coven, drinks chicken blood as a way to curse the wife of a man with whom she has had an affair. Their actions spin out of control and fuel a communitywide panic about devils and witches and the wrath of God.

The story is based on true events and is written in what Miller calls the “plain craggy English” of the 17th century. The playwright, who is now in his late 80s, visited Salem in 1952 and, at the courthouse, unearthed the transcripts of the trials. He was drawn to an account of Abigail’s wild behavior, and a story of revenge, accountability and social contortions began to take shape.

Many of Miller’s lines ring eerily familiar today but none more so than that of Deputy Governor Danforth, who presides over the trial: “A person is either with this court or he must be counted against it. There be no road in between.” For contemporary audiences, the line is a potent reminder of President Bush’s comment to Congress in the days after the 9-11 attacks: “Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

Surely, Miller means for theatergoers to continue to make such connections – even to those events that historically came after his work. For many, the play serves as a window to the past, too. Much of what we know about the events of 1692 – when more than a dozen innocent people in Massachusetts were publicly executed through hanging – comes from Miller’s imaginative reworking of the information. The play, like Thorton Wilder’s “Our Town” and Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” stands firmly in the canon of high school English classes and community theaters. It ranks sixth on England’s Royal National Theatre list of the best 100 English language plays of the 20th century. (Miller’s earlier work “Death of a Salesman” ranks first.)

While some critics have found “The Crucible” didactic and melodramatic, it is likely to remain an important theatrical commentary on American life. It has been made into a film, and a 2002 Broadway revival, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, opened to high-spirited reviews that drove home connections between the frenzied witch trials and the trauma of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Raiten hadn’t read the play in several years, but returned to it recently for his new production, which is staged in period clothes by his wife Elena Bourakovsky and has a atmospheric, minimalist set by Gerry Newman, a designer from New York City.

“When I read it this time, I got so emotionally involved with the page,” said Raiten. “Miller is such a powerful, clear writer. What the play does is make you realize that mob mentality, fear, repression and bullying always lead to incorrect assumptions and incorrect directions. The sad thing is that history does keep repeating itself.”

The New Surry Theatre will present Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” at 8 p.m. Aug. 13, 14, 19-21, and at 3 p.m. Aug. 15 at The Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth. For information, call 667-9500. Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.