If, like many Londoners, you weren’t quite speedy enough to nab a ticket to John Proctor is the Villain at the Royal Court Theatre (which ends its run this Saturday), then you’re in luck: the smash hit play is transferring to the West End for a 12-week season. Today, the producers of Kimberly Belflower’s play announced that it will run at Wyndham’s Theatre from February 2 to April 24, 2027 – with tickets going on sale at 2pm tomorrow, Tuesday April 21.
High levels of hype surrounded the play’s London premiere last month, and for good reason. John Proctor is the Villain opened on Broadway in March 2025, and scored seven Tony nominations, including for Best Play and Best Actress for Sadie Sink (Stranger Things). It then premiered in London in March 2026, where it picked up a raft of glowing reviews and became virtually impossible to get a ticket to (the Royal Court’s £15 Monday rush aside).
The play is set in 2018, in a high school in rural Georgia, USA. Emboldened and fired up by the #MeToo movement, five young women begin to question everything they’ve been taught – including in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, which features the character John Proctor. Infused with the thumping beats of Lorde’s Green Light, the play is a high-energy and deeply absorbing exploration of girlhood, power, and independence.
“Bringing John Proctor is the Villain to the West End is a true honour and profound joy for us,” writer Kimberly Belflower and Tony Award-winning director Danya Taymor said in a statement. “The play has been igniting London audiences, and we have fallen deeply in love with this great city.”
Belflower and Taymor describe the play’s London debut as part of the Royal Court Theatre’s 70th anniversary as “witchy”, and they’re not wrong: the very same theatre staged the London premiere of The Crucible back in 1956. Spooky.
Casting for the West End transfer is yet to be announced.
John Proctor is the Villain will run at Wyndham’s Theatre from February 2 to April 24, 2027. Tickets go on sale at 2pm, Tuesday April 21.
