Doubt - A Parable

Synopsis

Doubt is a spellbinding play about the nature of faith. As the character Father Flynn says in the opening speech - a sermon - 'What do you do when you're not sure?' Doubt is set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964. An imperious older nun suspects a popular young priest of inappropriate behavior with a student. Armed with nothing more than a resolute belief in her suspicion and a few circumstantial details, she instigates a relentless campaign to remove the priest, enlisting the help of a subordinate nun and the child's tormented mother. The simple, yet ever-shifting plot leaves all four characters and the audience wondering whether they were justified in their thoughts, motives and actions. Are you sure? Doubt is a serious drama about complicated human and social issues, it's also very engaging and highly entertaining. This is a play that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and only concludes with a conversation in the bar afterwards.

Our Review:

27 November 2007

“Where’s your compassion?” “Nowhere you can get at it.” This frosty exchange between the open-minded Catholic priest and the formidable Sister Aloysius is at the centre of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, a short sharp shock of a play that was first seen Off-Broadway in 2004.

The setting is a school in the Bronx in the autumn of 1964 and this historical moment meshes several key moods of liberalising change: the recent Camelot era of President Kennedy; the civil rights movement; and the challenge to the Catholic Church of the spirit of ecumenism.

At the start, Father Flynn (Padraic Delaney) delivers a Sunday sermon about the virtues of living with doubts; you are never alone, he suggests. He teaches physical education and religion in the school where the head, Sister Aloysius (Dearbhla Molloy), is isolated in certainty as she inducts a new, fresh teacher, Sister James (Marcella Plunkett) into her obstinate ways.

Having set up his potential fo...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 9 January 2008:

In America Doubt won a Tony award and a Pulitzer Prize so it is a real coup for the Tricycle to stage it in London, although it deserves to be seen by a wider audience. Not a single word of John Patrick Shanley's script is wasted and there are four superb performances: Dearbhla Molloy as Sister Aloysius, seemingly unaffected by doubt in her campaign against a possibly abusive priest despite no concrete evidence; Padraic Delaney, at first attractive and progressive but far too quick to hide behind the established order of the church; Marcella Plunkett as Sister James praying for the innocence of a man she clarly admires (or more) but who takes advantage of her naivety; and Nikki Amuka-Bird as the boy's mother who is shockingly prepared to turn a blind eye so long as her son graduates. Shanley does not take the easy course of providing an answer leaving the auience to draw their own conclusions, if they can. 2008 is only nine days old but my only doubt is that I will not see a better, more powerful or affecting play all year....

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