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The courage to stand up (to Meryl Streep)
Shanley's 'Doubt' at People's Light
John Patrick Shanley's 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner, Doubt, currently on stage at People's Light & Theatre Company, was inspired by the Catholic Church's sex scandals. But unlike Stanley Kramer's issue-oriented films of the '60s, it's not a didactic work. Like any first-rate work of art, it moves from the specific to the universal and becomes a complex meditation on certainty vs. ambiguity.
The place is a Catholic parish in the Bronx, the time the autumn of 1964, just as the sweeping reforms of Vatican II are about to take effect and American society as a whole is about to be turned topsy-turvy by Vietnam and the civil rights movement. Sister Aloysius, the stern, rigid school principal, has developed a visceral mistrust of Father Flynn, the parish's progressive young priest. When Sister James, one of Sister Aloysius's impressionable underlings, reports a meeting in the rectory between Flynn and the school's only black student, Sister Aloysius becomes convinced that Flynn is sexually abusing the boy.
Lacking any solid evidence, she attributes her suspicions to "experience" and launches a campaign to take Flynn down. Her efforts gradually escalate to furious confrontations, and both Sister James and the boy's mother are caught in the middle of the battle.
Under David Bradley's direction, the People's Light ensemble underplay effectively, respecting the play's subtleties and ambiguities. Pete Pryor convincingly brings many shades to Father Flynn, from easygoing charm to bewilderment to raw fury. Elisabeth Webster Duke ably conveys Sister James's torment over the conflict she has unwittingly set in motion. Melayne Finister plays the boy's mother with a touching blend of dignity and pathos.
And Ceal Phelan is at turns wry and fearsome as Sister Aloysius. It requires courage to take on a role that the great Meryl Streep played so memorably in the recent film version of Doubt, but Phelan creates her own take on the dragon lady"“ mean, incredibly headstrong, but with more suggestions of vulnerability than were evident in Streep's interpretation. It's well worth a trip to Malvern to see this performance.â—†
To read a response, click here.
The place is a Catholic parish in the Bronx, the time the autumn of 1964, just as the sweeping reforms of Vatican II are about to take effect and American society as a whole is about to be turned topsy-turvy by Vietnam and the civil rights movement. Sister Aloysius, the stern, rigid school principal, has developed a visceral mistrust of Father Flynn, the parish's progressive young priest. When Sister James, one of Sister Aloysius's impressionable underlings, reports a meeting in the rectory between Flynn and the school's only black student, Sister Aloysius becomes convinced that Flynn is sexually abusing the boy.
Lacking any solid evidence, she attributes her suspicions to "experience" and launches a campaign to take Flynn down. Her efforts gradually escalate to furious confrontations, and both Sister James and the boy's mother are caught in the middle of the battle.
Under David Bradley's direction, the People's Light ensemble underplay effectively, respecting the play's subtleties and ambiguities. Pete Pryor convincingly brings many shades to Father Flynn, from easygoing charm to bewilderment to raw fury. Elisabeth Webster Duke ably conveys Sister James's torment over the conflict she has unwittingly set in motion. Melayne Finister plays the boy's mother with a touching blend of dignity and pathos.
And Ceal Phelan is at turns wry and fearsome as Sister Aloysius. It requires courage to take on a role that the great Meryl Streep played so memorably in the recent film version of Doubt, but Phelan creates her own take on the dragon lady"“ mean, incredibly headstrong, but with more suggestions of vulnerability than were evident in Streep's interpretation. It's well worth a trip to Malvern to see this performance.â—†
To read a response, click here.
What, When, Where
Doubt. By John Patrick Shanley; directed by David Bradley. Through June 28, 2009 at People’s Light & Theatre Company, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, Pa. (610) 644-3500 or www.peopleslight.org.
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