It is not going where I think it’s going! It is not going where I think it’s going! Oh God, I think it’s going where I think it’s going!
This was my near-breathless reaction to experiencing the first half of Kimberly Belflower’s absolutely riveting and thought-provoking new play, John Proctor Is the Villain, the second most electrifying and manipulative production I have seen this season. And I really do mean that as the best compliment, because if you can manipulate your audience into reacting in a wildly positive manner, then why not go for it?
The play centers on an initial quartet of female high school juniors in a small conservative town in northeast Georgia at the height of the #MeToo movement in 2018 who want to start a feminist club but are getting pushback by the administration. But they have an adored English teacher, Mr. Smith (an excellent Gabriel Ebert) on their side and he talks their apprehensive guidance counselor (a terrific Molly Griggs) into allowing them their club as long as they tie it into the next class assignment, a study of Arthur Miller’s seminal play, The Crucible. Boys are also told they can become members.
The four girls include Raelynn Nix (Amalia Yoo), the daughter of a preacher, spirited Beth Powell (Fina Strazza), who loves to over prepare and worships Mr. Smith, Beth’s affluent bestie, Ivy Watkins (Maggie Kuntz), and a newcomer to the school from Atlanta, Nell Shaw (Morgan Scott), who dares speak her mind.
Mr. Smith goes through the history of the play with his class, chronicling the Salem Witch Hunt subject matter and the urgent and deliberate parallels with 1950s McCarthyism at the time Miller wrote it. And the girls are excited to dive into the play. The boys, not so much, but even they get slightly motivated—especially Mason (Nihar Duvvuri) who only initially attends for extra credit.
But there is a lot more non-classroom drama going on and it all reaches a fever pitch once a troubled classmate, Shelby Holcomb (Sadie Sink), who was on “sabbatical,” returns. It turns out Shelby slept with her best friend, Raelynn’s boyfriend, Lee (a too-real Hagan Oliveras). Poor Ivy is dealing with familial strife, her handsy father has been accused of sexual misconduct by one of his employees. And this is just the beginning. Spilling more plot would spoil the moments that will leave you with your jaw on the floor and, if you’re anything like me, gasping out loud (which I do not do at the theater…usually).
The Crucible and the titular character have an important (and deviously, reframed and aligned) role in John Proctor Is the Villain, as does an examination of the character that goes against conventional teachings. I vividly recall my own junior year in high school reading the play and being told by my own beloved teacher that John Proctor was indeed a hero. There was no questioning it. It was sacrosanct. But one of the themes of this play is how we have accepted so many rules and laws and explanations made up by those (white men) in power through the years. And how challenging these ideas and proclamations usually gets a person in trouble. But part of the #MeToo movement was and is about changing all of that. And about how to reprogram ourselves to allow for different narratives, and our own ideas, without being made to feel like a fool.
John Proctor also brings together two key players from The Crucible, Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor, via an interpretive classroom assignment. The two major characters never actually have a scene together in the Miller play, but Belflower creates this significant moment, one of the most fascinating onstage this season.
Danya Taymor’s dizzyingly swift and clever direction may win her a deserved consecutive Tony–she won last year for directing The Outsiders. The play’s pace is energetic without ever losing sight of, and paying attention to, the trauma certain characters are going through.
The cast, led by the gifted Sink (Stranger Things), is uniformly outstanding. I have no idea how the Tony-nominating committee will be able to decide between the featured female performances as they are all fantastic, but Strazza is the play’s acting revelation. Her Beth is so captivating I found myself constantly looking for her reaction to what was going on in each scene.
The design teams are off the charts great beginning with Natasha Katz’s fabulous lighting design, Teresa L. Williams & AMP’s great set and Palmer Hefferan propulsive original score.
The music of both Taylor Swift and Lorde (“Green Light” in particular) are important to the production, which reaches an incredibly frenzied and primal scream of a climax that had my audience (and myself) literally leaping to its feet.
The play can come off as somewhat heavy-handed, but it’s also bold, brash, insightful, disquieting and essential. And that’s the kind of theater we need right now. Actually, it’s the kind of theater we’ve always needed.
John Proctor Is the Villain is playing through July 6 at the Booth Theater, NYC. For tickets and more info visit: johnproctoristhevillain.com
