Broadway review by Raven Snook
It is 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, and an 11th-grade honors English class in small-town Georgia is studying The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s classic drama about the Salem witch trials. Their popular and engaging teacher is Mr. Smith (Gabriel Ebert), who sparks many a teenage crush. Goofy, empathetic, devout and married with a baby on the way, he's supportive of the girls in his class; in fact, when they decide to start a feminist club, it's Mr. Smith—not their inexperienced and fainthearted female guidance counselor, Miss Gallagher (Molly Griggs)—who champions the idea. He’s an ally, a friend and a sounding board: in other words, a good guy.
But who gets to be called a good guy—and, conversely, who gets called a bad girl? That’s the subject of John Proctor Is the Villain, Kimberly Belflower’s explosive response to sexism on and beyond the stage. The play’s fuse is lit by Shelby (Sadie Sink), a student who returns to school after leaving it abruptly months earlier in a cloud of gossip and rumor. As the alleged sexual misconduct of multiple men in their rural community comes to light, Shelby encourages her peers to challenge the conventional view of The Crucible’s protagonist, John Proctor, as a hero. In Miller’s allegory of McCarthyism, Proctor stands for integrity and honor: "How may I live without my name?” he asks when refusing to give the false confession that could save his life. “I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" But he is also an adulterer who slept with a teenage girl in his employ; and although The Crucible decries the unjust targeting of innocent people, it is also specifically about the danger of believing young women.
John Proctor Is the Villain | Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes
Men behaving badly may be its catalyst, but Belflower’s corrective wisely focuses on the relationships among the play’s female students, who are learning how to speak truth to power by harnessing power of their own. In addition to Shelby, they include the driven and high-strung Beth (Fina Strazza), the moneyed Ivy (Maggie Kuntz), the vulnerable Raelynn (Amalia Yoo) and the outspoken Nell (Morgan Scott), a recent arrival from Atlanta. Watching them build and rebuild their bonds—particularly Shelby and Raelynn, whose friendship was derailed by the latter’s brutish boyfriend, Lee (Hagan Oliveras, in an underwritten role)—is profoundly moving.
John Proctor Is the Villain has had multiple regional productions since its 2022 premiere, but it's hard to imagine a better mounting than its fast-paced and riveting Broadway incarnation, directed with clear-eyed compassion by Danya Taymor (who also directed The Outsiders, and knows her way around adolescent rebellion). Belflower has a supernatural gift for teenage vernacular and pop-culture touchstones, and the pitch-perfect cast makes you believe in these promising young women as they navigate puberty and the pitfalls of the patriarchy. A sign on the classroom wall that says Lightbulb Moments flickers each time the girls are pushed into emotional overload; Natasha Katz's lighting, Palmer Hefferan's sound and Hannah Wasileski's projections combine to illuminate the cacophony inside their heads.
John Proctor Is the Villain | Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes
Although Belflower’s play is far from agitprop—its characters register as real people, and their conversations are often laugh-out-loud funny—it does have points to make. As its cards-on-the-table title suggests, John Proctor Is the Villain isn't about its explosive reveals; it's about reclaiming and reshaping the narratives we’ve been taught. But although themes and incidents from The Crucible reverberate throughout this work, you don't need to be an expert on Miller’s drama to appreciate this one. Belflower’s first Broadway play is a galvanizing accomplishment all on its own. Remember her name.
John Proctor Is the Villain. Booth Theatre (Broadway). By Kimberly Belflower. Directed by Danya Taymor. With Sadie Sink, Gabriel Ebert, Fina Strazza, Amalia Yoo, Morgan Scott, Maggie Kuntz, Molly Griggs, Hagan Oliveras, Nihar Duvvuri. Running time: 1hr 40mins. No intermission.
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John Proctor Is the Villain | Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes
