Kimberly Belflower’s play about five Georgia teenagers turning on The Crucible transfers from its sold-out Royal Court run to Wyndham’s, directed by Danya Taymor.
Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain, nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play, transfers to Wyndham’s Theatre in Covent Garden from Tuesday 2 February 2027. Danya Taymor directs.
It is set in a high-school English class in rural Georgia in 2018, as the #MeToo movement reaches even a small town. The students are reading Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and their teacher insists that its hero, John Proctor, is a good man.
When an accusation surfaces in the classroom, girls who have just founded the school’s feminist club read the play against the grain. Abigail Williams starts to seem less like a villain. Pop songs by artists such as Lorde and Taylor Swift run between the scenes.
The play premiered at the Studio Theatre in Washington in 2022, played Boston in 2024 and opened on Broadway in 2025 with Sadie Sink.
The Royal Court gave its European premiere in spring 2026 with the Broadway creative team and a new British cast, and the run sold out. The West End run lasts twelve weeks.
Taymor won a Tony for directing The Outsiders on Broadway. The Royal Court presents the transfer with Sonia Friedman Productions and the play’s American producers.