Left to right: Brianna Martinez, Jules Talbot, Victoria Omoregie, Haley Wong in John Proctor is the Villain; directed by Margot Bordelon; photo by T. Charles Erickson
Presented by The Huntington
By Kimberly Belflower
Directed by Margot Bordelon
Dramaturgy by Lauren Halvorsen
Choreography by Victoria L Awkward
Fight and Intimacy Direction by Jessica Scout Malone
Voice and dialect coaching by Christine Hamel
February 8 – March 10, 2024
The Huntington @ Calderwood/BCA
527 Tremont St.
Boston, MA 02116
Review by Kitty Drexel
BOSTON, Mass. — It’s simple: believe girls. Believe women. Believe femme non-binary persons. Believe gender-expansive people who don’t fit your idea of how a person should look. Believe our stories. We don’t want fame. We want due process.
The Huntington’s John Proctor is the Villain running through March 10 at the BCA is an age-old story of victim blaming and abuser protection. Four teen girls (Brianna Martinez, Victoria Omoregie, Jules Talbot, and Haley Wong) are coming of age in post-#MeToo Appalachia. The four best friends and their bro classmates (Maanav Aryan Goyal, Benjamin Izaak) are taught by the school’s coolest homeroom teacher, Mr. Smith (Japhet Balaban), and new counselor Ms. Gallagher (Olivia Hebert).
The girls experience universal teen things: young love, pop idol obsession, and begin experimenting with new ideas by starting a Feminism Club. Trustworthy, cool-guy English teacher, Mr. Carter says he’ll sponsor their meetings to keep the community passive and the girls isolated in his classroom. He even wrangles the boys to attend (for extra credit)!
Everyone loves and trusts Mr. Carter! Even Ms. Gallagher remembers him from her middle school days. He’s teaching the class The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a play about the Salem witch trials. He’s excited they’re learning! Mr. Carter’s such a passionate educator; he even privately texts Beth to give her book recommendations after school.
Left to right: Japhet Balaban, Isabel Van Natta, Victoria Omoregie, Brianna Martinez, Benjamin Izaak, Jules Talbot, Maanav Aryan Goyal, Haley Wong in John Proctor is the Villain; directed by Margot Bordelon; photo by T. Charles Erickson.
Everyone loves Mr. Carter except Shelby (Isabel Van Natta). Shelby missed some school and has to make up part of the year. No one knows for sure why. Some people think it’s because Shelby slept with Raelynn’s ex-boyfriend Lee. Some people think it’s because Shelby is crazy.
You can never tell with girls who dress, act, and talk like Shelby. Girls like Shelby look for trouble, you know?
The girls are ready to move past Shelby’s return until Ivy misses a Feminism Club meeting. Her dad is in the local news for assaulting his secretary! A nice guy like Ivy’s dad couldn’t assault his secretary, right? He gives the best back massages.
This show is unfortunately timeless: an adult, Christian, male groomer convinces a community to trust him. Groomer preys on girls. Girl speaks out about groomer’s abusive behavior. Community is convinced girl is lying/groomer is innocent. Groomer gets away with it again and again. Cycle of abuse repeats.
John Proctor is the Villain is both an explanation for why people don’t believe stories of abuse and a guide to begin believing girls’ stories of assault. It begins with giving us the benefit of the doubt. It puts the next step, protecting the community from groomers, in our hands.
Director Margot Bordelon, intimacy and fight director Jessica Scout Malone, dialect coach Christine Hamel, and the girl cast recreate what it is to be a teenage girl caught between the madonna-whore dichotomy. Olivia Hebert as Ms. Gallagher captures what it is to be a woman trying to change an unchangeable world.
Japhet Balaban is loathsome as Mr. Carter.
The scenic design by Kristen Robinson turns a quaint classroom into the wild woods of Appalachia.
The sound design by Sinan Refik Zafar rocked. The pre-show playlist and inter-scene remixes almost turned house left into a dance party.
There’s a choreographed interpretive dance routine by Victoria L Awkward in the show’s final act. Initially danced by Raelynn and Shelby (Wong and Van Natta), they are joined by other girls to perform a mighty pageant of unfettered inhibitions depicting a meeting between two of The Crucible’s characters.
Awkward’s choreography is dramatic and free. It is reckless and carries in it the potential for feminine violence. It terrifies and entrances the males onstage. In this moment, male fear has the potential to teach. Maybe these males will think twice before crossing these girls. Maybe not.
It’s decadently righteous that John Proctor is the Villain is getting attention in 2024. It’s especially superb that Boston gets to see a professional production first. Broadway Licensing acquired rights in 2023, but the theatre community has been ready for a play like Belflower’s since crusty, deflowered Fleshlight moldering on the side of I-90 Harvey Weinstein was outed in late-2017.
Some critiques are easy to write. This article on The Huntington’s John Proctor is the Villain has been difficult to write. I left the BCA on Friday evening with a lot of feelings – catharsis, nostalgia, rage because Arthur Miller treated his multiple wives horrendously, and depression because the world has changed so little in 30 years since I read The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible in high school. Feelings.
I saw myself in this show. I saw my elementary and high school friends and nemeses. I saw the kids I had crushes on, and the girls who were in class one day and gone the next. Girls whose friends refused to discuss where they went and why.
Like the girls in John Proctor is the Villain, I was told I was a lot as a kid. I was too dramatic. I chose the wrong battles. Pushed buttons.
Left to right: Olivia Hebert, Japhet Balaban; photo by T. Charles Erickson.
Even when I entered the theatre, I was told I had to give others a try as if auditions were a democracy. I wish there was a story like John Proctor is the Villain for me to emulate as a teen. Girls of all ages and flavors on the gender spectrum should revel in acts of screaming at life’s imbalances and dancing out one’s rage.
Margot Bordelon and her cast perform Belflower’s exceptional work with the light-hearted joy and raw severity it deserves. The girl/women ensemble pays homage to the women who have told our stories for centuries while balancing it with the proper disrespect owed to the patriarchs holding our heads underwater to see the bubbles float up.
Yes, bring your daughters, your non-binary and femme trans children, your mother, and your female friends. They will find great value in it.
AND, bring your sons. Boy, male, non-binary, gender fluid masculine folx without an immediate female or feminine perspective should learn from this show, too. Make them discuss its themes. If Belflower, Bordelon, the cast and crew are to be believed, and I do believe them, your males need this play as much as we do.
