“Sublime“. “Bright”. Milly Alcock‘s stage debut was similar to her worldwide explosion as Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon. The actress is in production of The Crucible where she plays Abigail Williams, an iconic role for young actresses in Milly’s age group. “Alcock is brilliant in her impersonation of the cunning, seductive Abigail, who convinces the town of her former lover John Proctor’s (Ben Gleeson) guilt,” says Tatler magazine’s critic.

Abigail Williams is a character inspired by a real person and who was also at the forefront of the real witchcraft trials in Salem, United States. Seventy years after the premiere of the original production, the London production uses modern elements to highlight the current theme of Arthur Miller‘s play: cancellations, fake news, and hidden motivations to destroy people’s reputations and lives. Although it is somewhat of a trap to reduce Abigail’s action as that of a seductive and vengeful girl, she is in fact the antagonist of the story, hidden behind her youth and apparent innocence. As Tatler’s review puts it, “Abigail, she is a tightly coiled serpent ready to strike.”

The Standard also praises Milly’s talent as Abigail, saying that she “is sublimely terrifying as the teenage victim/seductress” and that “she is at times like a child, seriously biting her upper lip when interrogated by priestly prosecutors. But she can also manifest an insolent carnality and a fearsome, manipulative rage.” A duality is essential to the role that never clarifies whether it’s planning or simply embracing the opportunity for revenge.

Miller’s writing is one of the playwright’s finest, with striking phrases and intricate characters. The author used as a basis the judicial process still available in documents – which show how the panic generated by an oppressive Puritanism caused the death of 19 innocent people by making people believe they were “possessed by the devil” – to draw a parallel with the McCarthyism, an unhealthy fear of Americans of the “threat of communism”, a very strong thought and the heart of what came to be called the Cold War. And Abigail is the driving force of the drama.

House of the Dragon fans have been disappointed with Milly, who has ruled out returning to the series in flashbacks (and has been complaining about the weight of fame). It doesn’t matter. With unanimous praise, it only reinforces that we are witnessing the birth of a star.

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