A powerhouse cast brings John Patrick Shanley’s poignant story to life

By Lee Juillerat for Ashland.news

The first sentence spoken in the play, “Doubt: A Parable” — “What do you do when you’re not sure?” — literally sets the stage for what happens for the next 90 minutes.

The words are spoken by Father Brendan Flynn, a Catholic priest to his congregation at St. Nicholas, a fictional Catholic church and school in the Bronx in New York. They foreshadow events happen that create doubt.

Brilliantly acted and staged at the intimate Richard L. Hay Center at the Grizzly Peak Winery, Rogue Theater Company’s production of “Doubt,” as director John Sipes writes of the play, “serves as a cautionary tale, reminding us to be wary of the narrowness of moral certainty and encouraging us to embrace the ambiguity and uncertainty we so often face.”

Set in a time of insecurity

“Doubt,” written by John Patrick Shanley, premiered in 2004. The play takes place in 1964, a year after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a time of national insecurity. In his play-opening sermon Father Flynn states, “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.”

Events that follow feed uncertainty and doubt. Sister Aloysius, a rigid nun who is the school’s principal, has doubts about everyone. That includes Father Flynn; Sister James, a young, impressionable nun; and the school’s students and teachers. She’s unbending and unrelenting. Given her nature, she suspects Flynn of molesting a 12-year-old altar boy, who is also the school’s first Black student.

But her “doubt” is a parable for doubt on a broader scale. Although set in a Catholic school, Shanley’s brilliant, finely tuned script conveys how different people view and deal with doubt and uncertainty at many levels.

Strong cast

Making Shanley’s words poignant and come alive through words spoken and unspoken is an incredible cast of four: Vilma Silva as Sister Aloysius, Daniel Molina as Father Flynn, Rainbow Dickerson as Sister James, and Gina Daniels as Mrs. Muller. Each inhabits their character through their words and expressions. Their characters are real people.

As expressed by the cast and audience during a talkback session after the play, “Doubt” generates and provokes a range of emotions and thoughts. Questions and discussion showed that depending on an individual’s background, beliefs and experience, the concept of certainty is evasive and complicated, that beliefs of right and wrong, true and false, are complicated and uncertain.

What leaves no room for doubt is the play’s impact, not only during its current presentation, but since it was first performed. The play won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play.

The 2008 film adaptation, “Doubt,” starred Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn. It was nominated for several Academy Awards.

What causes doubt for audiences is the unresolved question of Father Flynn’s relationship with the boy, a question that mirrors other reasons that create doubt. As the usually self-assured Sister Aloysius confesses, “I have doubts! I have such doubts!”

“Doubt” is a thought-provoking play fueled and powered by Shanley’s powerful script, the theater’s simple but purposeful staging, and, even more, its carefully defined cast. It’s an intense, mentally incendiary play that asks questions, challenges thoughts and beliefs, and can be interpreted differently by people with different points of view. Without a doubt, “Doubt” is a play that resonates long after it’s over.

Email freelance writer Lee Juillerat at [email protected].