B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: John Proctor Is the Villain; Grief Camp

Sadie Sink in John Proctor Is the Villain.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Two dramas on teen torment recently opened on and Off-Broadway, approaching their subjects through different lenses and both achieving dynamic theatrical results. Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain at the Booth offers a radical reinterpretation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as its starting point, but the play itself is rather conventionally structured. Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, Eliya Smith’s Grief Camp takes what could have a Lifetime TV-movie plot—teens at camp dealing with the deaths of loved ones—and gives it an unconventional twist. Her play is a disturbing, puzzling, yet ultimately satisfying portrait of adolescent angst, as is Belflower’s work.

Set in 2018 at the height of the #MeToo movement, in a one-stoplight Georgia town, John Proctor follows the treacherous and tricky path trod by a group of high-school students as they study Miller’s classic play on the Salem witch trials and find parallels to their own situation. The girls in Mr. Smith’s Honors English class are wrestling with their burgeoning sexuality and an atmosphere of male repression. When they form a feminism club, it raises hackles in the conservative town as accusations of adult misconduct surface. Ivy’s dad has allegedly committed harassment with more than one woman, Raelynn is being pressured by her boyfriend Lee to have sex, and Shelby is returning to school after a mysterious absence. Shelby emerges as the main character as the shocking reason for her “sabbatical,” as she calls it, is revealed and she challenges the standard interpretation of John Proctor as the hero of The Crucible and his accuser Abigail as the villainess.   

Amalia Yoo, Morgan Scott, Sadie Sink,
Fina Stazza, Nihar Duvvuri, and Hagan Olveras
in John Proctor Is the Villain.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Additional plot strands involve straight-A student Beth whose faith in her favorite teacher Mr. Smith is severely tested; new counselor Ms. Gallagher, barely older than the kids, attempting to make her mark; recent Atlanta transplant Nell navigating her way through treacherous waters; and Mason, trying his best to be a male ally.

Belflower captures the roiling ambivalent emotions of the students and teachers, combining raucous humor with raw pathos. Danya Taymor’s direction is fast-paced and pulsing with tension just beneath the day-to-day schoolroom surface. Sadie Sink (Stranger Things, The Whale) has a dynamic, captivating, jittery energy as Shelby. She covers her secret vulnerability with a rush of snarky observations, and gradually peels back Shelby’s tough exterior to reveal a shaky, confused kid. Amalia Yoo’s questioning Raelynn and Maggie Kuntz’s rattled Ivy are movingly insecure. Morgan Scott as Nell has several funny moments as does Fina Strazza as the overeager Beth. Hagan Oliveras and Nihar Duvvuri make the boys Lee and Mason more than adolescent stereotypes. Gabriel Ebert displays layers of deceit as the seemingly model teacher Mr. Smith and Molly Griggs shows Ms. Gallagher’s hidden strength.

Maggie Kuntz, Morgan Scott, Fina Strazza,
and Amalia Yoo in John Proctor Is the Villain.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Natasha Katz’s supernatural, spooky lighting transforms the detailed classroom set by AMP Ft. and Teresa L. Williams into a frightening nightmarescape. 

It’s especially refreshing to see a play by a new playwright on Broadway, but also to see new audiences. At the performance attended, there were numerous school groups and younger patrons. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been to a Broadway show and I was the youngest one there—and I’m in my 60s.

You don’t need to brush up on your Arthur Miller or the song catalogues of the latest pop stars to fully enjoy the jolting John Proctor, but it couldn’t hurt. 

 

Meanwhile, Off-Broadway, Eliya Smith’s Grief Camp takes a look at a similarly confused bunch of kids, but her portraiture is more fragmentary, messy and intriguing than Belflower’s. We first meet the campers in a stereotypical moment, talking after lights out. But it’s gradually revealed this is no ordinary camp, each of the teens has suffered the recent loss of a family member and they are here to heal. 

Grace Brennan and Lark White in
Grief Camp.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

Each is dealing with mourning in peculiarly individual ways. Olivia (Renee-Nicole Powell) shamelessly flirts with her older counselor Cade (Jack DiFalco), explicitly bringing up menstruation and masturbation. Olivia’s sister Esther (Lark White) concentrates on becoming the most beautiful person in the world and her friend Luna (Grace Brennan) pretends to be from California, when she’s really from the Midwest. The shy Blue (Maaike Laanstra-Corn) is writing an elaborate musical fantasy involving a woman in a castle who converses with the ocean. Bard (Arjun Athalye) clings to his childhood sleep toy, a stuffed dinosaur, but finally resolves to throw it in the lake after it has been ripped open by the other kids. Gideon (Dominic Gross) is the one character woefully underdeveloped. Even Rocky (Danny Wolohan) the head counselor who we only know about through his rambling announcements over the P.A. system, is a deeper presence.

Maaike Laanstra-Corn and Renee-Nicole
Powell in Grief Camp.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

In addition to Gideon’s slight characterization, there were some flaws. Would teenage boys and girls be sharing the same cabin and toilet facilities? (Louisa Thompson designed the appropriately rustic set.) An adult onstage guitarist (Alden Harris-McCoy) provides occasional musical accompaniment and interacts with Bard in one fishing scene, but it’s not clear what his role is. Is he a counselor or a device of the playwright? The setting of Hurt, Virginia is little too on the nose. But despite these problems, Smith has created a quirky, arresting portrait of kids dealing with life-crushing circumstances, directed with sensitivity by Les Waters and acted with depth by a surprisingly insightful young cast. I was particularly fascinated by Powell’s bitchy, yet vulnerable Olivia and Laanstra-Corn’s  off-kilter Blue. In the play’s final moments, she tearfully sings a song from her bizarre script and then becomes an older version of herself, counseling a suffering camper, and reliving the stages of her own grief. It’s a beautiful moment in an imperfect, strange play I won’t soon forget.

John Proctor Is the Villain: April 14—July 6. Booth Theater, 222 W. 45th St., NYC. Running time: 100 mins. with no intermission. telecharge.com.

Grief Camp: April 22—May 11. Atlantic Theater Company at the Linda Gross Theatre, 336 W. 20th St., NYC. Running time: 100 mins. with no intermission. atlantictheater.org.