BWW Interviews: THE CRUCIBLE's Erik Heger

Erik Heger returns to the Guthrie as the man at the center of an Arthur Miller masterwork, THE CRUCIBLE. Directed by Joe Dowling in his final season as Guthrie artistic director, the play can be seen on the Wuertle thrust stage.

Inspired by the McCarthy-era Communist witchhunts, Miller's masterpiece of good and evil is being revisited at the Guthrie for the first time in four decades, this intense production features a cast of more than 20 actors.

It's 1692 and a dark magic possesses Salem. The God-fearing citizens are on their guard and no one is beyond suspicion. As investigations into witchcraft reach their height, a young woman points a finger at Elizabeth, the blameless wife of John Proctor. But Proctor finds he cannot save her without unearthing his own black sin. With powerful notions of faith and uncertainty, and truth and deception - burning as feverishly today as the day it was written - this Tony Award-winning masterpiece of the American canon is a must-see for anyone who wants a well-rounded theatre education as this show is not one you'll see often around town. It's also telling that the issues of the 1950s, 1692 and many times previously are still around in today's society as you'll be reminded of the cyclical nature of human existence.

The Guthrie production is true to time period and the sets (like the people and time) are thick with dense, dark trees that make you feel further entrenched in the dark, wooded town where the people rarely see the light of day in more ways than one. This show will keep your attention and take much of your energy but is probably one of the more engaging shows on a Guthrie stage this season.

The Guthrie provided a look at lead actor Heger in this Q&A (taking a break from our new format):

Q: What character do you play in The Crucible and how would you describe him?

A: I play John Proctor. Proctor is stuck in a bind between guilt and integrity, a good man racked with shame. He is struggling to fix his marriage, to provide for his family and to do the right thing - and I think he believes that he is doing well in that regard. But he lives in a world that is unforgiving, judgmental and harsh. It's very difficult to be fully human when you must also be untarnished: part of our humanity is found in our rough edges and flaws. His deep emotions and desires often conflict within himself - and ultimately he is struggling to make sense of who he really is at his core.

Q: What drew you to the play?

A: When Joe Dowling asked me if I would come back to the Guthrie to play Proctor, I was in the midst of negotiations to be the lead clown in a massive hotel/casino circus show in Las Vegas. I remember thinking, "Man, do I have a weird life." Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2015 versus Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 - you'd be hard pressed to find two more divergent worlds.

I found my old copy of the play. As I read it for the first time in years, I was surprised by how deeply moved I was by the story. Miller was a genius. THE CRUCIBLE is about so much more than Salem in 1692 or America during McCarthyism. It is stunningly (and tragically) relevant today - in the U.S. and throughout the world.

I was also surprised by how funny the play is. I hadn't remembered how absurd some situations and lines truly are, not to mention how clever (and hysterically not clever) some of these people are.

Q: What part of the story resonates most with you?

A: It's got epic themes that run deep into the human experience. This is no small story - it is Greek in its scope: hope, longing, guilt, shame, duty, faith, fear, lust, love, grief, sacrifice and survival.

Throughout the play the tension between these forces slowly - almost imperceptibly - builds. Like a rope with a knot in the center: it is easy to untie the knot at first, but gradually it tightens. In THE CRUCIBLE, like other tragedies by Miller, there is a moment when the tension on both ends of the rope has simply made the knot too tight to untie. But no other playwright does this in such incremental and imperceptible steps as Miller does. It's impossible to pinpoint when the knot became too tight, you just discover that it is so. I find myself squirming and tensing: When did that happen? How did we get here? I love that about his plays.

The wonderful thing about Miller's characters is that they fight to untie that knot until the very last moment. And as the stakes get higher, they fight deeper and stronger until the knot is so tight that it must be cut.

Q: Have you worked on an Arthur Miller play before?

A: I played Joe Keller in my high school's production of ALL MY SONS, and my experience in that production shaped the rest of my life. I had just quit the varsity football team. I was slated to be the starting quarterback and the starting middle linebacker for a team that only had 13 guys! My body was going to get crushed and the only person who didn't know it (or didn't care) was our coach. Also my heart wasn't in it. I loved basketball and baseball; football was my "other" sport. So I braved the backlash of my best friends, coaches and schoolmates and I quit. I had made the first big decision that was mine and mine alone. I had done it against a wave of pressure, but it was the right choice and it felt good to trust myself.

Then the next thing I knew I was in a play! And not just any play and not just any role: as a 16-year-old pimply-faced kid, I was playing one of the greatest roles ever written 50 years before I was right for the part! None of that mattered to me. I loved every minute of it! I can still remember the look our director gave me after one of the performances. She just locked eyes with me and nodded, as if to say, "Way to go, kid! You did it!" And that's when I first caught the acting bug.

Erik Heger bio:

Guthrie Macbeth, The Great Gatsby, A Little Lunch, No More Static; Guthrie Experience 2003. Theater M.T.C.: Based on a Totally True Story; La Jolla Playhouse: Lee Blessing's The Scottish Play; CenterStage: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Seattle Rep: The Great Gatsby; A.C.T.: Romeo and Juliet, The Master and Margarita, Pirandello's Naked, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Christmas Carol; Virginia City Opera House: A Night at the Fights. Film/Television A Perfect Match, Henry Hinkle, Upside Out, "Law and Order," "One Life to Live," "All My Children," "As the World Turns," "Guiding Light," "And1 Streethoops." Teaching Dueling Arts International. Training M.F.A., American Conservatory Theater; B.A., Colorado College

More info:

Playing through May 24, 2015, tickets and further information are available at http://www.guthrietheater.org/plays_events/plays/_crucible.

Photo: Erik Heger, provided courtesy of the Guthrie Theater.

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