Doubt
John Patrick Shanley says ours is a "courtroom culture," where everything gets debated, bluster trumps reason, and "communication has become a contest of wills." Instead of offering that culture's certainty, Shanley shaped a play for its opposite. Doubt, which he says can be a "passionate exercise," is its title and its outcome. It's 1964, roughly a year after JFK. Father Brendan Flynn subscribes to Vatican II. He's taken the school's first black student, Donald Muller, under his wing. Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the principal, is spare-not-the-rod old school. She's convinced Flynn performed a sexual "infringement" with Mueller. Her evidence: hearsay and stereotypes. For the San Diego Rep, Douglas Roberts walks kindly Father Flynn on a tightrope: does he become paranoid because he's been caught or because a falsehood could cost him his beloved calling? Innocent Sister James wants life to remain simple; Amanda Sitton traces Sister's almost speechless disillusionment with eloquence. In a brief, explosive cameo, Monique Gaffney plays Donald Muller's mother, who's fighting a battle that comfy goods and evils can't encompass. Rosina Reynolds makes Sister Aloysius unyielding but shows she's trapped in a larger, male-dominated system. Sister seems monstrous, true, but she must be since she's also the underdog.
Worth a try.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, February 8, 2009
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
| Wednesdays, 7pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 8pm |