Reviewed
by Jerry Kraft
A
priest is suspected of inappropriate contact with a young male student in the
parochial school atmosphere of 1964. How could this be anything but an
"issue" play? Well, it could be written by John Patrick Shanley, one of the most rigorous and
accomplished playwrights now working. In his hands, the largest questions do
not arise from circumstances and events, but from greater, more fundamental
concerns about knowledge and responsibility. What is the cost of certainty, of
doubt? What relationship does each have to finding the truth, about this
situation to be sure, but in a larger sense to the way in which we carry in
ourselves the sum of those suppositions we call truth.
"Doubt" was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer
Prize for Drama, as well as the Tony award for Best Play. The script is
meticulously constructed, elegantly balanced to present both arguments and
individuals, and builds a captivating conflict to a resolution which is both
authentic and inconclusive, precisely the "Doubt" which the title
promises. In this production the cast is quite uneven, with two superior
players and two who are less well-finished. The direction, by Warner Shook, fails to raise the stakes quite
high enough, fails to put quite enough danger in the central conflict, and as a
result the reversal of the ending is less striking and less effective than it
should be. While there are many fine moments, and some fully-realized scenes,
the production as a whole feels a bit flaccid, a bit too comfortable and
accommodating to achieve the sort of knife-edge tension the script details.
The
central conflict is between Sister Aloysius, the principal of a Catholic
school, and Father Brendan Flynn, a personable and well-liked teacher and coach
who seems to be developing dubious relationships with some of his students. In
particular, a young boy named Donald Muller returned from
"counseling" with Father Flynn with "a look on his face" and
then rested his head on his desk. A new teacher, Sister James, finds herself in
the middle of the conflict, innocent and trusting, liking and admiring Father
Flynn, but clearly under the sway of Sister Aloysius. That is a substantial
sway, indeed. Being a woman who cannot abide uncertainty, Sister Aloysius
confronts Father Flynn, and without either of them acknowledging anything other
than her suspicions and his innocence, he resigns his position at the school
and moves on. When Donald's mother comes to the office to speak with Sister
Aloysius, it not only intensifies the uncertainty around Father Flynn, but
greatly complicates the question of what misconduct really is, and whether her
son has been mistreated or aided, whether Flynn was predatory or simply kind.
In the end, what's done is done, and only in the denouement of the conflict can
the first crippling hints of uncertainty creep into Sister Aloysius, too late
to affect anything that's already happened.
Kandis
Chappell is
amazing as Sister Aloysius, as much an edifice of the Church and its school as
the brick walls and cold stone floors. For all her toughness and uncompromising
expectation, Ms. Chappell also shows the subtlest suggestions of an emotional
interior that is generous and deep, capable of navigating the secular world
without ever losing the bearings of her religious compass. This is a formidable
character, and from that some of the production's central problems arise.
Father Flynn is young, energetic, personable and ambitious. With this terrible
accusation (to be accused of child sexual abuse is tantamount to a kind of
conviction in itself) we should see a response to enormous danger: to his
career, his reputation, his personal integrity. But for me, those scenes felt
more like charges of petty misconduct, embarrassing but not catastrophic.
Corey
Brill played
Father Flynn as too much of a nice guy, casual and self-confident, concerned
but not in crisis, and certainly no match for the moral rectitude of Sister
Aloysius. As a result, the Sister's final moments in the play felt contrived
and inadequately motivated. I don't think the problem is in the script. I think
we needed to still hear the echoes of great armament from Flynn and Aloysius's
earlier battle in order for the resolution to be justified. Similarly, I thought
that Melissa D. Brown was too lightweight as the new teacher who "makes history too
interesting". With her character, I felt we should have seen more of the
fear and potential injury of lingering so near the perimeter of this moral and
ethical killing zone.
It
was the spectacular performance of Cynthia Jones as the mother of the boy who has
allegedly been abused that really raised the level of expectation, and
emphasized just how intense and affecting this whole play should have been. Her
riveting performance as a woman who only wants what's best for her child,
regardless of how the rest of the world might see that, was simply brilliant. I
believed every word she said. I believed the entirety of her relationship with
her child. I believed the world she lived in. And I believed that she fully
understood all of the stakes at play in this situation, and precisely what she
was doing and why. I'm quite certain that her scene will remain in my memory
long after I've forgotten the rest of this production.
Credit
must be given to Scenic Designer Michael Ganio for the elegant and effective
mechanical set, using flats and wagons to move us in and out of the walls of
the school. The set-dressing deftly put us into that mid-1960's timeframe
without ever being too insistent. Equally important was the fine lighting
design by Allen Lee Hughes. "Doubt" is a stunning play, surprisingly
difficult to balance in all its complexity and nuance. Although excellent
performances like those given by Kandis Chappell and Cynthia Jones gave us a
clear indication of the potential and impact this show should have, in the end
Warner Shook simply didn't hold our feet to the fire quite enough. This is one
of those shows that I look forward to seeing again, but in another production.