DOUBT

Original titleDOUBT
CategoryPlay
AgegroupAdults
Cast4 total (3 F and 1 M)
Variable cast sizeNo
RepresentationNordic representation
LanguagesDanish, Swedish, Norwegian
Shanley won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, as well as four Tony Awards for this play which deals with an extremely sensitive and relevant issue, taking the Catholic Church as its starting point. At a Catholic School in the Bronx the chief nun, sister Aloysius, is suspicious of the progressive and charismatic priest Father Flynn. His interest in only the coloured boy of the school seems suspect to her. Sister Aloysius has a strong faith and her faith in her own suspicion is just as strong. She confronts the boy’s teacher, Sister James, and his mother with her suspicion. Eventually, Father Flynn also hears of her suspicion, and now the question is whether he is guilty or not. The audience is stalled with excitement and unawareness in Sister Aloysius’ determined search for the truth. Will we ever get the answer? And is it the right answer? The play focuses on the anatomy of doubt and faith in a disturbing manner – in which condition is doubt when the faith is strong, and what is faith, when doubt is triumphant? "The #1 show of the year. How splendid it feels to be trusted with such passionate, exquisite ambiguity unlike anything we have seen from this prolific playwright so far. Blunt yet subtle, manipulative but full of empathy for all sides, the play is set in 1964 but could not be more timely. Doubt is a lean, potent drama […] passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing." - Linda Winer, Newsday