The “Match” in Kimberly Belflower’s thoughtful new play “John Proctor is the Villain,” currently playing at the Booth Theatre, is between the heavyweight team “Toxic Masculinity” and the underdogs “The Feminist Club.” The match takes place in Mr. Carter Smith’s (a far-too-transparent Gabriel Ebert) classroom “during spring semester, junior year, 2018 at Helen County High, the only high school in a one-stoplight town, northeast Georgia.”

It is prudent to begin with the members of The Feminist Club. Beth Powell (a nervous, ambitious, and uber-enthusiastic Fina Strazza) introduces the idea for the club to her English Literature teacher Mr. Smith who then proposes the idea to the school’s administration. School counselor Miss Bailey Gallagher (a sweet yet perceptive Molly Griggs) who cannot support the club because it is a sensitive issue that would have an effect it might have on the town. Beth and the other charter members urge the counselor to make the club happen. Mr. Smith resolves the situation by volunteering to be the advisor and to link the club to the class’s study of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”

The other charter members of the club include Raelynn Nix (the always-tries-to-fit-in Amalia Yoo), Ivy Watkins (the fiercely loyal and well-intentioned Maggie Kuntz), and Nell Shaw (a genuine, grounded, and sincere Morgan Scott) the new Black student from Atlanta. Shelby Holcomb (a somewhat broken but underestimated Sadie Sink) joins the club when she returns to the school after an unexplained and extended absence. Her absence is one of many undisclosed secrets that playwright Kimberly Belflower weaves through her layered and character driven narrative.

The” Toxic Masculinity Club” adds members as the plot progresses and it is difficult to identify all the members without a spoiler alert. However, if one watches and listens to the action on stage carefully, it will not be a surprise who the ultimate member is.

Ivy Watkins, grapples with the news that her father has been accused of sexual harassment by one of his employees and makes her participation in the club uncomfortable. Alleged member number one. Lee Turner (an insecure and entitled Hagan Oliveras) is Raelynn Nix’s ex-boyfriend that refuses to get the message that Raelynn no longer considers him her beau. Lee struggles to come across as the boy-next-door but he is about as toxic as a junior in high school might be (and, yes, there are many of such young men wandering the halls of high schools across the globe). Carefully, the playwright peels off the layers of abuse the other young women have experienced in their short but full lives.

Not in the club’s original membership is unassuming and truly gallant Mason Adams (an affable, honest, and sincere Nihar Duvvuri) who is conscripted to join the club and transforms into the character who is the most supportive and most empathetic male in the group.

Now the spoiler alert. If one observes the encounters Beth Powell has with the charming Mr. Carter Smith, it becomes clear that the “beloved” married teacher is the John Protcor in the room. The playwright deftly draws the parallels between the classroom and the Salem community. The real spoiler alert is the methods Kimberly Belflower draws upon to make this connection happen. Shelby perhaps makes this connection clear, “Abigail was a human being // she like // she existed // that’s a fact // but John Proctor is just obsessed with this made-up thing.”

Under Danya Taymor’s meticulous direction, the cast of “John Proctor” define the meaning of liberation in an exquisite fashion. Each of their characters plays a role in defining the essence of freedom and the joy of communal confession, the stillness of forgiveness, and the grace of absolution.