By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Saturday 21 March, opens 26 March and runs through 25 April 2026 RUNTIME: 105 minutes (no interval)

‘Well those rumours, they have big teeth, hope they bite you. Thought you said that you would always be in love but you’re not in love no more,’ sings Lorde on Green Light as modern day female high school students lip synch to it in an attempt to make sense of the situation they’re in.

• Read on for reasons including how this will spark many talking points without necessarily providing the thatrical heft to settle any of them

Pop music is the perfect vehicle for the teenagers in this Broadway transfer of a new play by Kimberley Belflower to find meaning in a small, rural Georgia town in 2018 as ab enthusiastic English teacher saves the school’s feminist club while teaching Arthur Miller’s Salem witch trials classic The Crucible.

We studied The Crucible at school and last saw the play in an underwhelming version with a gigantic water curtain at the National Theatre but have witnessed an unforgettable reimagination at the Old Vic starring a brooding Richard Armitage a decade ago as John Proctor.

Belflower gives us a classroom which welcomes back schoolmate Shelby, here played by the charismatic Sadie Soveral, who has been missing for a while as another faces a family crisis with her father being accused of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement.

Miya James’ earnest Raelynn fell out with Shelby because her boyfriend, Charlie Borg as the clumsy Lee, cheated on her with the mysterious disappearing classmate as the pair fumble to repair their relationship.

Elsewhere Holly Howden Gilchrist’s bookish Beth is delighted at the attention of Dónal Finn’s (Hadestown, Lyric Theatre) teacher Mr Smith while his colleague the school counsellor given life by Molly McFadden is on the side of the female pupils as allegations of inappropriate behaviour are levelled at the tutor.

We especially enjoyed Reece Braddock’s uninterested Mason who enrols in the feminist club because he needs it for his grades rather than for any particular allyship with his female classmates.

It’s especially appropriate that the 7-time Tony Award-nominated John Proctor transfers to the Royal Court because Miller’s Crucible made its debut in England at this very venue 70 years ago.

Which makes it all the more frustrating that using this original source material as inspiration, adding the relevance of #MeToo seen with the knowledge of the recent Epstein Files that there’s not more substance to John Proctor.

Was John Proctor the villain of The Crucible as this play’s title states?

Ultimately this show’s audience will get out of this play what it brings to it but for us director Danya Taymor has created something which is hugely relevant to a vitally important debate today that will spark many talking points without necessarily providing the theatrical heft to settle any of them 1 way or the other.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Royal Court Theatre Tickets
• Have you seen The Crucible before and what did you think of this? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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