There were moments during "Doubt" at Mill Mountain Theatre when I forgot I was watching a play. That's how involving is John Patrick Shanley's aptly titled drama, and how compelling the actors' performances.
A collaboration of Hollins University and Virgini
a Tech, the production was staged at both schools and then on Mill Mountain's Waldron Stage as part of the Roanoke Arts Festival. It was directed with typical adroitness by Hollins theater Chairman Ernie Zulia, who is to valley theater what Google is to search engines.
a Tech, the production was staged at both schools and then on Mill Mountain's Waldron Stage as part of the Roanoke Arts Festival. It was directed with typical adroitness by Hollins theater Chairman Ernie Zulia, who is to valley theater what Google is to search engines.
But to "Doubt." Drawn from today's sexual abuse scandals in the church though set in a Catholic school in 1964, the multilayered drama pits an authoritarian old-school nun against the equally strong-willed parish priest. Sister Aloysius, the school principal, accuses Father Flynn of seducing a 12-year-old black student at St. Nicholas School. She rests her case on flimsy evidence but long experience and theretofore reliable intuition.
Father Flynn, a popular priest who embraces Second Vatican Council liberalizations as fervently as Sister Aloysius condemns them, denies the charge vigorously but with a tantalizing dollop of equivocation. Accused and accuser are portrayed by Patricia Raun and Jens Rasmussen at a level of acting proficiency rarely seen on area stages.
Ably supporting them are KT Broido as Sister James, an idealistic young teacher, and Idara Aquaowo as the student's startlingly pragmatic mother. Sister James admires Father Flynn and his modern ways but is influenced by Sister Aloysius to question his denials. At the same time, she is unsettled by the principal's seemingly steely certitude.
The young nun in that way may represent the audience, for the playwright never lets us know whether the priest is guilty. The final scene, a sort of epilogue, only deepens the mystery while giving playgoers even more to ponder, talk about -- and doubt.
-- Jeff DeBell, Special to The Roanoke Times
