The Good John Proctor by Talena Monahon. Jermyn Street Theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, London SW1 to 27 January 2024. 4****: William Russell.
The Good John Proctor by Talena Monahon. Jermyn Street Theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, London SW1 to 27 January, 2024.
4****: William Russell.
“A disturbing, perceptive look at the girls who dreamt up the witches of Salem.”
Set in 1691 the year before the Salem witch trials Monahon’s play focuses on four of the girls who were involved in the accusations about witchcraft in the woods the subject of Arthur Miller’s1953 play The Crucible. That focused on how Proctor, a farmer in the small remote New England settlement, ends accused of witchcraft and is tried and hanged. It was controversial at the time as it was really about the McCarthy hearings of the day in which people were accused of being Communists – witch hunts in reality - and careers and lives were destroyed. The girls who made the accusations matter but Proctor is at the heart of the play whereas this piece focuses on what four of the girls were getting up to as they squabble, dream, suffer the awakenings of sexual desire and lie to avoid facing up to what might be seen as wickedness by the Puritanical society in which they live. The cast, although they do have some problems suggesting how young some of the girls were, rise to the play’s demands splendidly and it holds the attention throughout although they do over emote at times – Jermyn Street is a small theatre and occasionally they seem to be trying to hit the back wall of a non existant Gods. We never meet Proctor although one of the four, twelve year old Abigail strikingly played by Anna Fordham , eventually leaves her cousin ten year old Betty, played beautifully by Sabrina Wu, innocent, trusting, gullible and petulant, to sleep alone in the family attic to take a job as Proctor’s maid. They have a friend, Mercy, played by Amber Sylvia Edwards, who fills their heads with tales of wicked doings in the local woods and grown up seems to have come to a bad end, while things are not helped when the 18 year old Mary Warren, played by Lydia Larson, comes into their lives. Larson manages to conjure up someone who is dangerous to know. Eventually the girls do go into the woods and everything comes to the inevitable end of the trieals as they all lie to protect themselves although just how good Proctor was remains unclear. Miller shows him as a man who did have an affair with one of the girls whereas here the hint is more of a predatory employer although it is never explored. The play ends with the girls grown up and Betty, now a smug and puritanical figure presumably a pillar of the community, denies the past completely. Monahon has crafted it all skilfully, some of it is very funny, some of it alarming and taken as a companion piece to Miller’s play well worth seeing. Whether it stands alone in its own right, however, is another matter although director Anna Rider has done a magnificent job keeping the action flowing – the play runs straight through with no interval – in an ingenious set by Natalie Johnson which manages to transport us from attic to woods with little more than a piece of furniture being moved. The Good John Proctor looks at the problems girls have growing up and how they can create terrible trouble confronted with all the problems of becoming sexual beings when they deny their fantasy lives and is an auspicious start to the New Year for this ever resourceful theatre.
Cast
Anna Fordham – Abigail Williams.
Sabrina Wu – Betty Parris.
Lydia Larson – Mary Warren.
Amber Sylvia Edwards – Mercy Lewis.
Creatives
Director – Anna Ryder.
Designer – Natalie Johnson.
Lighting Designer – Laura Howard.
Sound Designer – Vella kear,
Fight Director – Enric Ortuna.
