review: 'The Crucible' at the Old Vic on digitaltheatre.com

So, a month ago I finally watched 'The Crucible' with Richard Armitage. I had waited for this pay for months and months and when I found out that I wouldn't be able to attend a screening in a cinema, I actually cried out of frustration. But then I read about DigitalTheatre.com and all was well again.
I had read the play before and I had a certain idea of the production but what I saw blew me away anyway.
I can not stress enough how much I admire the performances of every single actor and how impressed I was by their work. They seemed to give absolute everything and it was heartbreaking and devastating and touching and beautiful all at the same time.
I loved the idea of Abigail behaving and moving completely opposite to John Proctor's contained body language and posture (and the other girls' body language for most of the time). Her movement and energy in the first act seemed more of a representation of John's feelings for her than merely her character. The way she threw herself on him and clinged to him was a beautiful way of showing her power over him and his fear of that.
I also loved Richard Armitage's portrayal of John Proctor. The way he used his height and his physical presence for intimidating people but then gradually breaking down and temporarily losing his strength until triumphing in the very last scene...it was amazing.

I loved the choreography and the physicality of the Adaption. The sparse, quite cruel lightning made the faces look almost like masks by accentuating their roughness.

By the end of the play I was so drained that I just started to cry and didn't stop for about an hour. I think I started crying when Elizabeth denies John's affair with Abigail and he then whirls around and tells her he already confessed, but it is too late. I also sobbed the whole way through John and Elizabeth's meeting before John's execution and I sobbed even harder during the applause, when Richard Armitage was on stage alone and was still crying but also smiling and looking so proud and tired and overwhelmed that I just wanted to hug him and tell him how amazing it had been.