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Review of Doubt by Carol Horning Stacey-The Nickelsworth
In choosing John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable, the Interplayers started
with one key ingredient to a successful evening of theater – a good play. In
this case, the play is more than good. It won the Pulitzer, after all. Add first
rate acting and tight direction and you have what theater is supposed to be
about — drama.
The playwright set his play in a Catholic parish with a
conflict between a nun and a priest, but the conflict in the story isn’t about
Catholics — it could take place in any hierarchical organization, in the
military or in business or in a university, where professionals are dedicated
and yet vie for position. It is the politics of minutia, where rumors fly, where
anything you say may be used against you.
Shanley calls his play “a parable.” A parable is a short
narrative, often fictional, meant to convey a moral or spiritual truth. Here
the principal of a parish school, Sister Aloysius, played by Ann Russell
Whiteman, has begun to suspect Father Flynn (Aaron Murphy) has a deviant
interest in a new student, the only black boy in the school. She sows the seeds
of suspicion in young Sister James, and starts to build, in her mind, a case
against the priest until she is firmly convinced he is a menace. The story being
set in 1964, it predates our era of daily headlines about abusive
priests.
The audience hears and sees everything Sister Aloysius
hears and sees from Sister James, from the boy’s mother (Rebecca Davis) and from
the priest himself. What does it amount to? Added up one way it’s damning,
another and it’s baseless rumor, but rumor alone is enough to destroy the young
priest. His parable on this: as punishment for gossip, a woman is told to stab a
pillow. The feathers fly. Then she is told to gather them up, but
how?
And Sister Aloysius is pre-disposed to resent Father
Flynn. She believes the role of nuns and priests is to keep the flock on the
straight and narrow. The students are afraid of her, and she thinks that’s the
way it should be. Father Flynn thinks the rigid parish school needs to be
modernized in ways the nun would never allow. As for the boy in question, the
priest has been protecting the boy, offering the hand of friendship to a young
fellow beaten by his father and driven out of public school by bullies. Naïve
Sister James sways one way and another as these two vie for her support. And
always, she is plagued by doubts.
Tightly directed by Roger Welch, the actors play the
conflict subtly but still they play it for all it’s worth. The acting is superb.
Ann Russell Whiteman plays Sister Aloysius as a quiet and well meaning woman but
a fierce protagonist for the story. Aaron Murphy’s Father Flynn is just the
picture of a fine man of the cloth, firm and friendly, maybe a little fussy,
maybe too friendly with the young nun. This is a subtle performance, just right
for the play.
As the volatile young nun, Bethany Hart plays her
character as one the audience can trust to be sincere; she must seem completely
real, and she does. Despite her brief time on stage, Rebecca Davis creates a
well rounded picture of a tough, uncomfortable and ambitious woman squirming on
a too-small chair, determined to make her boy’s future the first
priority.
The play ends November 7 and the Interplayers theatre
on Howard in Spokane. Without an intermission, the show
runs about 90 minutes, and you’ll be on the edge of your seat the whole time. If
you like good theater, don’t miss it.
—Carol Horning Stacey
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