DOUBT by John Patrick Shanley

And after the controversy and vase-shattering of The Goat, Tennessee Rep’s next production is a subtle, intricate, but no less fascinating piece of theatre: Doubt.  This fabulously wrought play is set in a Catholic parish and school in 1964.  The principal, a stern, authoritarian nun named Sister Aloysius, comes to suspect (with growing and fervent certainty) that the young, progressive, charismatic priest, Father Flynn, has or is plotting to molest a 12-year-old male student in the school.

The cast is full of incredibly talented Nashville actors.  Rona Carter plays the indefatigable Sister Aloysius.  Jessejames Locorriere plays the suspected priest, Father Flynn.  Jenny Littleton plays the innocent nun-in-the-middle, Sister James.  And Delali Potakey plays the boy’s mother, Mrs. Muller–who finds herself in the unenviable position of having to choose between the young priest who has reached out a hand of love to her isolated son (he is the school’s first African-American student) and the nun who believes that hand was extended not in Agape but Eros love.

So what’s the play about?  This is certainly not a treatise on the Catholic Church’s scandals regarding priests and molestation.  In fact, if we (and Mr. Shanley) have done our jobs, you should be left with some doubt as to whether or not the priest is guilty (although you’ll undoubtedly have an opinion on the matter).  No, at its heart Doubt is about exactly that: doubt, and, by extension, our current culture’s obsession with certainty.  In a time when doubt is viewed as weakness and certainty (even uniformed, misguided, overly enthusiastic certainty) as strength, Mr. Shanley argues that doubt (and the thought that doubt engenders) is a necessary precursor to growth.  In our highly-politicized, bumper-sticker climate, people like things black and white; people long for that, will even fight for that.

But in Doubt, we’re led on a journey of self-discovery through the gray areas of life.  The characters travel from moments of surety to moments of great doubt.  And do they emerge on the other side, stronger, wiser creatures, more sure of themselves and the gray-filled world around them?  Ah, but that wouldn’t be Doubt, would it?

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