In this engrossing production at the Beck Center for the Arts, there is something suspicious going on at the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx in 1964. That is where the supportive Father Flynn delivers the sermons and sets the rules. But when his behavior comes into question, he ultimately locks horns with the slight yet indomitable figure of Sister Aloysius, and that is a battle well worth witnessing.
Adapted as a film starring Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in those starring roles, Doubt is a bout of ideas on one level, and an exploration of possible child molestation on another. The idea battle is rooted in the teaching styles of Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius, pitting his preference for a warm smile and a gentle touch to her insistence on using a firm hand and keeping an emotional distance from her charges.
Aloysius’s philosophy of teaching is spelled out early in this 90-minute one-act, in her scenes with the novice sister James, who is called into her superior’s office and dressed down for laxity and over-familiarity in the classroom. This puts Sister James in a quandary, since it goes against all her instincts as a caring human being, but she pledges to try to be more aloof with her students.
On the other hand, Father Flynn has a more loosey-goosey approach to the educational process. Indeed, his first sermon that begins the show is about the prevalence of doubt in people’s minds, and how that feeling of uncertainty can be used as a bond with others who feel the same. As Shanley’s beautifully constructed play proceeds, you are invited to recall that sermon and decide if it was his first defensive barricade against the accusations against him.
Those accusations arise from Sister James, when she shares information with Sister Aloysius about the Father and his suspiciously close relationship with Donald Muller, a ten-year-old boy and the first Black student at the school. This triggers an investigation by Aloysius that ultimately leads to a conversation between her and the boy’s mother Mrs. Muller, that once again puts an interesting twist on how events are perceived by people from different stations in life.
This a rich theatrical stew for any group of actors to dive into, and the Beck crew savors it superbly in most instances. As Father Flynn, Christopher Bohan is all combed, scrubbed and smiley as he shares his thoughts with his congregants about the positive power of doubt and, later, about the danger of gossip, those wordy “feathers in the wind” that one can never recapture or control. And when he is finally accused directly, his range of reactions—all entirely believable and riveting—is fascinating to watch.
Equally involving is Derdriu Ring as Sister Aloysius, who is an impentetrable mountain of certainty about most things, including the evil of ballpoint pens (“They make the students press down hard and write like monkeys.”). She sees herself as the last bastion of cool vigilance in the face of an overheated world rife with sin. And once she is on the trail of the Father, Ring’s persistence is formidable indeed.
As Mrs. Muller, Tamara French mirrors Sister Aloysius in many ways, since she is firmly resolved to do what she thinks is best for her son, given the challenges he faces as a Black child living in a poor neighborhood. She sees this school as his ticket out, and she isn’t about to have that derailed by the Sister’s suppositions.
While Gabriella O’Fallon ticks all the emotional boxes as Sister James, she never quite succeeds in fashioning a character to embody them. Without that, the emotional journey of Sister James is reduced to a collection of charmingly adept facial and vocal expressions without a core.
Director Carrier keeps the proceedings intense, but also finds the humor in this battle of wits and morals that eludes an easy conclusion.
Doubt: A Parable
Through June 25 at the Beck Center for the Arts, 17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, beckcenter.org, 216-521-2540.
This article appears in May 17-30, 2023.
