When choosing a show to produce for your theater company, a good strategy is to pick one that has recently won both a Tony for Best Play and the Pulitzer. Doubt: A Parable is such a play, winning said awards in 2005. Everyman did well in choosing it as their first fall production.
Doubt opened briefly off-Broadway in 2004. It ran on Broadway between March 2005 and July 2006, with 525 performances. When it closed, it was the fifth-longest running play of the previous 10 years.
The play centers around the conflict between Father Flynn (Clinton Brandhagen) and Sister Aloysius (Laura Giannarelli) in a Brooklyn Catholic school. The unwitting and inexperienced Sister James (Katy Carkuff) confesses to Aloysius that she smelled alcohol on the breath of a student. The harsh, stereotypical headmistress Aloysius assumes the worst, and contrives a plan to corner Father Flynn.
Though the play comes to us a few years after the major events surrounding the Catholic Church and priests' relationships with boys, the idea of doubt - in superiors, in a system, in oneself - is timeless. Doubt quickly reminds us of the perceived problems in the Catholic Church, and we are drawn in.
But above this, we are also forced to challenge our own knowledge. What is it to be truly certain? Can one be sure of something when there is no proof?
The religious backdrop for these questions is no coincidence, and the questioning of faith is a subtle but omnipresent second theme.
Father Flynn has very reasonable explanations for what seems to be damning evidence. Despite the solid accounts of Flynn, Aloysius continues to up the ante, probing further and further into his activities.
When Father Flynn very convincingly explains away the alcohol situation to Sister James, she expresses her relief to Sister Aloysius. Aloysius doesn't even pause to consider her story. Instead, she exclaims, "You believed him?"
Aloysius is so driven by her quest that she is willing to break Church convention, saying that it is sometimes necessary to step away from God to address that which is evil.
Although Aloysius seems over-critical more often than not, Father Flynn is by no means the clear hero of the play. Although his excuses and explanations come easily, they come too often - he just has an excuse for everything. Of course, were he innocent, this would be just the case. Again, doubt takes hold of the situation.
There is an intense juxtaposition between Flynn, the kind, nurturing parishioner with an admirable jump shot, and Aloysius, the old-style, ruler-waving nun who sees ballpoint pens as lazy. Aloysius and Flynn mirror two views of the Catholic Church: the harsh, Latin-speaking organization in the service only of God, and the familial extension that the Second Vatican Council would like its followers to have.
When the conflict finally comes to a direct confrontation, it is difficult to know whose side to be on. The plot progresses back and forth; Every time one thinks, "Aha! So he is guilty!" there is an opposing "He is just looking out for the children's best interests, after all."
Clinton Brandhagen's performance as Father Flynn was true to life, but his accent took a little getting used to. While undoubtedly taken on for the play, it was sometimes difficult to say just who would have such a mode of speech.
Aside from this minor flaw, he was compelling as the distraught priest - or, perhaps, as the clever and resourceful cover-up artist. Brandhagen's acting skirted the line between an excellent liar and a genuinely wronged man - just as it was supposed to.
Laura Giannarelli was the perfect stern nun as Sister Aloysius. One half-expected her to storm out into the audience and admonish someone for not sitting up straight.
Perhaps it is not difficult to portray a cold, almost emotionless figure who is wrapped up in a habit. But Giannarelli did an excellent job nonetheless.
Rounding out the feel of the play was the well-planned set. Thorny bushes sprouted around the semi-circular stage, and dead brown vines wrapped around columns.
Also impressive was how the set silently transitioned between two settings via some unseen mechanism. Actors would often remain on-stage during these changeovers, smoothly rolling out of view.
Notably, Doubt is to become a full-length movie, starring Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn.
Also of interest is the fact that the the writer of the original play, John Patrick Shanley, will also be directing the movie. We can be sure that none of the writer's original "vision" will be lost.
With this fact in mind, it might be advisable to go see the play before it it released in theaters. That way, one can judge the movie in terms of the play. What could make a theater-snob happier?
Doubt: A Parable runs through Oct. 5. Tickets are $24-$38. For more information, visit http://www.everymantheatre.org.
