"What do you do when you're not sure, ...lack God's guidance?"
This line, from a sermon by Father Flynn to parishioners in a small church in a big city in the early 1970s, could apply to Sister Aloysius' actions as principal of the parish school. She is convinced that the priest has abused its first black student, a boy who doesn't fit in. Young, enthusiastic arts teacher Sister James has smelled liquor on the boy's breath as well as observing his strange demeanor after leaving the rectory and befriending by Father Flynn. Unlike the sermonizer, neither sister believes doubt can be "as powerful and sustaining as certainty."
Sister Aloysius sets out to confront the priest and needs a backup, first in Sister James (who differs greatly from the principal in how, why, and what she teaches) and then by calling for Mrs. Muller, the boy's mother. But a series of conflicts, in which doubt changes to certainty and vice-versa for everyone but Sister Aloysius, heads to a conclusion that's neither victory nor complete defeat for her. It's the back and forth of the struggles among all the characters that heightens the drama. Uncertainty spreads to the audience as well, so that the drama of doubt goes on after the play is over.
The only fault I find in author Shanley is that he fails to convey the sense of a real school going on outside the principal's office or what in real life would be the presence of a convent in which the nun-teachers lead a communal life after school hours. Neither director Anne Kauffman nor scenic designer Kris Stone convey the atmosphere -- they have a cloister with apparent cells in the cloister leading to/from the church! -- or even the sense of a relatively small place within a big urban bishopric. One local critic actually referred to Father Flynn as the pastor, easily missing the importance of references to an aging Monsignor who never believed ill of his clergy. Because of him, Sister Aloysius needed all the corroboration she could get for a charge she might make. (The usual order would be first to pastor, then to bishop.) Thus the further need for Mrs. Muller when Sister James wavers.
Symbolism of a Mary's rose garden, that Sister Aloysius is shown earlier to be burlapping against winter's ravages, comes to naught when not she but a stage hand, appearing like a gardener near the end, reveals budding flowers.
Randy Danson unfortunately shows only the gruff, stuffy, opinionated, strictly disciplinarian side of Sister Aloysius, never her sense of humor. Her concern for what might happen to future students if Father Flynn is to go unchecked is largely lost.
Paul Molnar's Father is so much more attractive and seems so startled by her suspicions, the odds are immediately thrown in his corner. His consternation when his adversary tells of her research, therefore, asks for a complete and certain reversal rather than renewed doubt.
Karis Danish's Sister James is a throwback to portrayals of nuns as total innocents, probably raised in a hothouse. She conveys swaying opinion but no sense of its worth.
Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris manages to project the dignity of the mother of the boy at the center of the controversy, even as she's ready to compromise just to get him past this phase and successfully out of this school into the next. It's an adequate portrayal but not the devastating one that won a Tony for the role's originator.
Though Doubt is worth seeing, this production fails to bring out its value. It needs a director who understands the time, the mores, and relevant Catholic parish and school life with the clergy and sisters who lived it as they did.
