JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN Previews — Page 3

I really enjoyed the ensemble in this well-written feminist allegory. Fina Strazza was especially good and the direction and pace was well above par. I absolutely loved the ending and left with a big smile on my face.

That was a really good play!! Obviously reminded me of The Wolves, another play I adore, except the Wolves were jocks and these girls are budding intellectuals. But both playwrights have an ear for how teenage girls talk and that talk is wonderful and insightful and communicated by a bunch of tremendous young actresses. Four stars!!

Owen22 said: "That was a really good play!! Obviously reminded me of The Wolves, another play I adore, except the Wolves were jocks and these girls are budding intellectuals. But both playwrights have an ear for how teenage girls talk and that talk is wonderful and insightful and communicated by a bunch of tremendous young actresses. Four stars!!"

I read the script the other day and the play that it reminded me of was Kingdom City by Sheri Wilner. Both are plays set in contemporary conservative small towns that The Crucible to parallel buried secrets and sexual impropriety. I enjoyed reading Kingdom City quite a but, but I think I liked John Proctor is the Villain even more. It felt more true to life in terms of how teenagers talk and behave. Kingdom City also goes much darker and is more overtly provocative and explicit in terms of the buried secrets, which is dramatically compelling but less palatable. Kingdom City also is more overtly about the control religion has over small towns and how it is used to cover up misconduct. John Proctor is the Villain, while certainly confronting the same explosive topics, feels more organic in how the topics are integrated into the stories and characters while also being less explicit.

Kingdom City isn't produced often, probably because of how explicit and provocative it gets, but I can see John Proctor is the Villain being more popular. I could see that one being produced in my area, which is exactly the sort of rural conservative place in which both plays are set.

Anyone see this recently? I’m assuming it’s frozen since it opens this week. Still running closer to 2 hours?

Saw this and honestly not sure why it’s gotten so much praise on here. It was good but predictable. I definitely laughed and thought the girls did a great job. Someone said this didn’t feel preachy, but I found it to be heavy-handed. Again, I did enjoy it, but I wouldn’t give it a rave.

What you described is certainly how I experienced the script seeing the show in DC.

I didn't buy the ending.

Skip23 said: "I didn't buy the ending.

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Same. I don’t care how small this “one stoplight” town is. Never happen.

Skip23 said: "I didn't buy the ending.

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I also found that strange but I think this was meant to be a small town where standing in the town means a lot (and it seems obvious that the teacher is very well-respected. What I was more surprised about was that

To me the play is less about reexamining The Crucible in a modern context as the title would suggest, but the messiness of growing up and realizing you may have a flawed perspective, of wanting to do the right thing but feeling like it's wrong and vice versa, and how you feel differently about things when they become personal issues that happen close to you. And while it did offer some slightly new perspective on The Crucible (which is a play I hadn't really thought about since I read it in high school, so perhaps the perspective isn't all that new), I do think they also picked and chose specific parts that supported their argument and conveniently left out portions that didn't. And perhaps that isn't the point of the play, but that also goes back to my point of it being more a story about coming of age and everything.

I really did enjoy this, but I'm not sure it's the best play shoo-in that people seem to be considering it to be. I'd put it on the bubble and could really see it going either way.

Bring back intermissions!!!

Jordan Catalano said: "I saw the matinee today and I suppose I was lucky because the audience was great. I expected folks to rush the stage when Sadie appeared but she got a very polite entrance applause/reaction.

I'm going to need to think on this play a bit because while I think every actor on that stage was marvelous, I'm not too sure the script was. I didn't "dislike" the play but it felt like for a play that wanted an audience to make thier own conclusions about something it sure did want to force your hand into feeling a certain way. Someone told me they loved how the play asked a lot of questions and I suppose it did but then I felt it kind of let the audience down by answering them - if that makes sense.

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Yeah, I’m not sure this is a play that’s supposed to be asking a questions so much as asking the audience to ask a question based on the show’s thesis. It’s trying to prove point and it’s right in the title: John Proctor is the Villain.



The point of the play is the history books and canonization of what is “great” art has always been determined by the male perspective: many of the men that are held up as “great” men are actually not great men, but problematic or downright harmful for women & it’s been so prevalent for so long that we’ve all internalized it. It’s taking this big ideas and showing how it personally affects young women.


It very strongly comes down on one side of the argument—I think the audience is supposed to ask themselves if they buy the overall argument and if they, too, have bought into the metaphorical John Proctor=Good, Abigail=Bad narrative in their own lives.

To those who are saying they don't buy the ending because the teacher is allowed to remain at the school after what happened, and Sadie Sink's character is back in the same room as him, even if only for one class:

I went to a well respected arts college in a major city, in a renowned BFA program that produces tons of professional stage and screen actors that you've prob seen. In my senior year, a guest artist working on the big main stage musical assaulted me. I reported it to the performing arts department. They kept me separate from him for the rest of the process, but absolutely NOTHING was done to reprimand him or remove him from the production. I get the disbelief that the teacher in John Proctor would still be there. But if my experience in a major liberal arts college in a liberal city is any indication, you can bet that a man of stature in a tiny "one stop light town" kept his job. I was completely moved by this play. Bellflower's script forces the audience to look at some very uncomfortable truths. That final dance was like an exorcism, my heart leapt out of my chest and it captured something that words simply can't describe.