Cast Set For THE GOOD JOHN PROCTOR at Jermyn Street Theatre

Jermyn Street Theatre has announced the casting for the opening production of Footprints Festival this coming January. The Good John Proctor by Talene Monahon, which runs from 10 - 27  January,  is directed by 2023 Carne Deputy Director Anna Ryder and features Sabrina Wu (Graceland – Royal Court, The Doctor – Duke of York’s) as Betty Parris, Anna Fordham (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Southwark Playhouse, Sleeping Beauty – Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch) as Abigail Williams, Amber Sylvia Edwards (Macbeth – RSC, Tina The Musical – Aldwych Theatre) as Mercy Lewis and Lydia Larson (You Stupid Darkness – Paines Plough, Finding Fassbender – Pleasance Courtyard) as Mary Warren.

Salem. 1691. It’s one year before the witch trials begin. Betty Parris and Abigail Williams’ adolescent world is full of sin and suspicion. Satan is everywhere – in their friends’ homes, in the poppets they play with, and in the woods which they certainly won’t enter. Their New England world is turned upside down when Abigail starts working for a local farmer, John Proctor… Set in the year leading up to the events dramatised in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, The Good John Proctor centres on the inner lives of the real girls at the centre of the Salem trials.

This is a new production that follows a critically acclaimed staging of the play in New York.

Director Anna Ryder says:

“The first time I read this play I knew I wanted to direct it. Talene's writing is nuanced, witty and clever. I loved the idea of the script - the Salem witch trials have become immortalised on our stages in Miller's The Crucible and The Good John Proctor offers a new take - shaking up our perceptions of what feels like a familiar story. The play imagines the experiences and lives of the girls at the centre of the trials and explores the world from their perspective instead.  Jermyn Street Theatre offered the perfect space to tell this story - it has an intimacy that this play demands. We have such a talented cast, I can't wait to work with them to find these characters fresh.”

The third Jermyn Street Theatre Footprints Festival runs from 10 January to 10 February 2024.  Showcasing a wealth of young talent, this year it comprises a collection of six daring and electrifying works.  The month-long mini season includes the Carne Deputy Director, the winner of the Woven Voices Prize for Playwriting, and the hand-picked cohort of up-and-coming writers, directors, designers, and producers that make up the theatre’s Creative Associates. 

Running in repertory with The Good John Proctor is Jaisal Marmion’s debut work Boy In Da Korma directed by Ben Grant.  This is the story of a a half-Indian, half-Irish boy on the rural south-west coast of Ireland who believes he is Tupac reincarnated. This is what 17-year-old Liam knows with his entire heart and soul: he’s destined to be the world’s next rap superstar - Straight Outta Skibbereen.  Featuring original music, this exhilarating, irreverent exploration of mixed-race identity charts one kid’s desperate attempts to belong as much as he wants to stand out.

Alongside Boy In The Korma, audiences can also catch The Pursuit of Joy written by Safaa Benson-Effiom and directed by Brigitte Adela. Ardel, Joan, and Iona - three strangers on the hunt for something different - meet at arrivals before the 2,349 mile journeyy to find themselves - along the way they search for the answer to life's most important questions. What is joy? Where do we find it? And what’s with all the baggage? This is a heart-warming journey of self-discovery through hot rain and cold cerveza.

Opening in on 23 January and running through to 6 February is the winning entry of the Woven Voices Prize for Playwriting 2023.  Spanning five decades, The E.U. Killed My Dad written by Aaron Kilercioglu is a tensely gripping thriller that tells the story of a family reunion which fast becomes an exhilarating whodunnit. Directed by Georgia Green, this inventive, fast-paced work unravels a conspiracy that goes to the heart of global politics and explores the themes of identity, belonging, and the inescapable bonds of history.

As February gets underway Flora Wilson Brown’s multi-period climate crisis play - A Beautiful Future Is Coming opens as a Co-Production with DONOTALIGHT. 1854, New York - Eunice sits in what will become Central Park and wonders if something is going horribly wrong.  2027, London - Clare falls in love as the streets begin to flood. 2100. Svalbard - Ana hears a baby crying in the seed vault. The world is ending, sure. But what happens in between? Directed by Harry Tennison, this is a fast-paced, funny, moving play about 250 years of climate crisis and holding onto hope against all odds.

Rounding of Footprints Festival is Two Rounds, written by Oscar-nominee Cristina Comencini and translated and directed by Aida Rocci.  A Jermyn Street Theatre and Aslant Theatre Co-Production, this award-winning Italian comedy offers a delicate reflection on being a woman across generations. Beginning in 1960s Italy, Claudia, Gabriella, Sofia, and Beatrice meet every week to play cards, discuss their marriages, and shuffle the deck of life. Fast forward thirty years, their daughters gather after a funeral, and the cycle repeats. But has anything changed? This searing new translation brings the flavour, passion, and authenticity of a story that has captivated Italy for decades.

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