It’s a testament to the subtle brilliance of Kimberly Belflower’s writing and Danya Tamor’s direction that you can hardly feel the 105-minute, no-intermission runtime of John Proctor Is the Villain.
The play, now on Broadway, follows a group of junior girls at Helen County High, a small school in northeast Georgia, who start a feminist club at the height of the #MeToo movement. At first, their plans are almost thwarted by anonymously concerned community members who worry the group will alienate boys. The girls insist that their male peers can, and in fact should, become members. “If we were able to foster a meaningful dialogue with them, we could find common ground,” intones Beth (an impressive Fina Strazza), the high-strung but well-meaning one of the crew. “That’s like, the whole purpose of this club, that’s why it’s so important.”
Lucky for these teens, their beloved English teacher, Mr. Smith (Gabriel Ebert), stumbles upon the heated confrontation and cuts a deal with guidance counselor Miss Gallagher (Molly Griggs): If he signs on as faculty advisor and the girls tie their class reading — Arthur Miller’s The Crucible — into their agenda, then the organization proposal will be approved. The girls enthusiastically agree to these terms. They don’t even care that Mason (a winning Nihar Duvvuri), a junior boy failing English class, has to join the club for extra credit. It’s 2018, and the onslaught of news about accused men and their survivors have left the teens seeking a safe space to tackle big questions and confusing feelings.
But the girls have no idea just how important the feminist club will become over the course of the spring semester, as a series of distressing events threaten to upend their lives. The drama starts with the return of Shelby Holcomb (Sadie Sink), a member of this friend group who abruptly left school for three months after sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend. No one knows where she went, but the rumor mill whirs as soon as she steps foot on campus. Raelynn (an excellent Amalia Yoo), the reserved daughter of a preacher, isn’t sure how to process her former friend coming back to school; she’s still angry with Shelby for having sex with Lee (an appropriately slimy Hagan Oliveras).
Meanwhile, Ivy Watkins (Maggie Kuntz), another friend in the group, wrestles with news that her father has been accused of sexual harassment by one of his employees. The case grips and divides residents of this one-stoplight town, including members of the feminist club.
In the background of this interpersonal drama, the girls, whose friend group includes recent transfer Nell (Morgan Scott, with sharp comedic timing), read The Crucible and prepare for their final projects, in which they must put two characters who never share a scene in conversation with one another. As the girls read more of Miller’s play, they begin to question why John Proctor, a reputation-obsessed man who arguably ruined not only his wife Elizabeth’s life but Abigail’s as well, is so revered. Their re-examination of the play about the Salem witch trials becomes a means through which they can better understand their own realities.
A familiarity with Miller’s work, which the playwright wrote as a response to McCarthyism, is not a requirement for John Proctor Is the Villain. In organizing her play around an English class, Belflower incorporates any necessary plot points into Mr. Smith’s lessons and discussions between the students.
John Proctor Is the Villain was first produced at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Marti Lyons directed, but Taymor, who won a Tony last year for directing The Outsiders, assumes the reins of this version. Her direction is nimble without losing sight of the play’s striking emotional core. She works with Amp, with whom she collaborated on The Outsiders, and Teresa L. Williams to reinforce the play’s intimacy through a vivid and detailed set. All the action in John Proctor Is the Villain takes place in Mr. Smith’s classroom, which is decorated with Georgia Bulldogs ephemera, a couch for students to sit on and stare out the window, and motivational posters. One wall boasts a list of the state’s most famous authors in addition to helpful tips for good writing. The metal desks, plastic chairs and linoleum tiles resemble those in public schools across the country.
The conversations between the girls are a sprightly dance of topics, from school gossip and local affairs to pop culture and private fears. They speak at the speed of an internet scroll, yet that swiftness doesn’t subtract from the profundity. Instead, it makes room for revelations — about their discomforts, their preferences and their desires. An endearing intimacy is fostered and the stakes of these relationships are heightened.
Many theatergoers will be drawn to John Proctor Is the Villain by Sink, who made her breakthrough in Stranger Things and most recently starred in Searchlight’s musical drama O’Dessa. While the actress holds her own, channeling her character’s mix of teen angst and deeper emotional woundedness, her performance is buoyed by those of the women around her.
When Shelby awkwardly bursts into Mr. Smith’s classroom on her first day back at school, the audience has already been prepared for her arrival. After the charged encounter with Miss Gallagher, Ivy, Nell, Beth and Raelynn start planning their first feminist club meeting. A discussion of Twilight (which Raelynn loves) and Taylor Swift (whom Beth is obsessed with) devolves into a gossip session where the other girls catch Nell up on the drama. Raelynn’s shy deflections become sharper as the questions about where she stands with Lee turn into ones about her relationship with Shelby. In these early moments, Yoo brings her character’s fragility to the surface with doleful expressions and a withering physicality, which makes the confident transformation she eventually undergoes all the more satisfying to watch.
And that’s true for all the girls in John Proctor Is the Villain, for at its core Belflower has constructed a poignant story of girlhood and empowering friendships. As Shelby adjusts to the new semester, she reconnects with her friends, especially Raelynn, and shares more information about the real reason why she left school. There are some moments that slacken here, especially as Belflower works her way to the twist, but with no intermission, the play’s frenzied pace continues uninterrupted and helps the inevitable revelation land with a real shock. (The audience audibly gasped when I saw the show.)
It’s fitting that John Proctor Is the Villain is running at the same time as All Nighter (off-Broadway) and shortly after Nina (off off-Broadway), two shows that concern the interior lives and intimate conversations of young women. Similarly to those plays, John Proctor Is the Villain takes the concerns of its characters seriously. The girls dissect Taylor Swift and Lorde’s lyrics (the two musicians are crucial in this production) with the same intensity and attention to detail as they bring to The Crucible. It’s thanks to these pop culture icons, whose music so squarely centers the emotional textures of growing up, that these teenagers search for the women in Miller’s text and can even begin to question why anyone ever thought John Proctor was a hero.
Venue: Booth Theatre, New York
Cast: Sadie Sink, Nihar Duvvuri, Gabriel Ebert, Molly Griggs, Maggie Juntz, Hagan Oliveras, Morgan Scott, Fina Strazza, Amalia Yoo
Director: Danya Taymor
Playwrights: Kimberly Belflower
Set designer: Amp ft. Teresa L. Williams
Costume designer: Sarah Laux
Lighting designer: Natasha Katz
Sound designer: Palmer Heffernan
Projection designer: Hannah Wasileski
Movement: Tilly Evans-Krueger
Presented by Sue Wagner, John Johnson, John Mara Jr., Runyonland, Eric Falkstein, Jillian Robbins, Jen Hoguet, Rialto Productions, Corets Gough Kench Cohen, The Shubert Organization, James L. Nederlander, John Gore Organization, Patty Baker, Cue to Cue Productions, Echo Lake Entertainment, Harris Rubin Productions, Klausner & Zell, Jennifer Kroman, Mickey Liddell & Pete Shilaimon, Mahnster Productions, Nathan Winoto, The Cohn Sisters & Stifelman-Burkhardt, Astro Lab Productions, Creative Partners Productions, Sarah Daniels, Joan Rechnitz, Melissa Chamberlain & Michael McCartney, Pam Hurst-Della Pietra & Steven Della Pietra, Newport & Smerigan, Jamie deRoy, Jaime Gleicher, Wes Grantom, Meena Harris & Jessica Foung, LAMF, Corey Steinfast, Turchin Clements, Louis Hobson, Annaleise Loxton
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