Doubt- a parable
John Patrick Shanley
Chichester Festival Theatre
Saturday 29 January 2022, 14.30
Running time: 90 minutes
Directed by Lia Williams
Designer Joanna Scotcher
Composer & Sound Designer Melanie Pappenheim & Giles Perring
CAST
Monica Dolan – Sister Aloysius
Jessica Rhodes – Sister James
Rebecca Scroggs – Mrs Muller
Sam Spruell – Father Flynn
Doubt? Before we got there, I did have my doubts. The standard New York theatre template … cast of four, two names above the title of the play, one set, probably long speeches. I also wondered why they would put a four actor play on the huge Festival Theatre stage, rather than in the smaller Minerva theatre opposite. The audience today would have fitted in the Minerva and still left empty seats.
All true, but cast away all doubts, this is a first rate production of a stunning and deeply thought-=provoking play with a brilliant cast. They also used that wide full stage to great effect. The existentialist design uses the space, complemented by an intricate subtly changing lighting plot and sound design, with noises of kids at play appearing in the distance. The lighting is one of the many aspects of this production worthy of an award.
The play is set in the Bronx New York in 1964, and won the American awards in 2005. It became a major film in 2008 with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis. That expanded the cast of four to seventy-one and was directed and written by John Patrick Shanley. The stage version came out just a couple of years after the Boston Globe Spotlight revelations. A two year investigation revealed that child abuse by priests was far wider than the public had realised, and that it was increasingly obvious that the church hierarchy knew all about it, colluded, transferred dodgy priests. It was clear that this went right up through the levels to the Vatican. When the Boston Globe published their report, they were inundated with phone calls revealing that what they had thought was an unbelievable amount of sexual abuse was only the tip of an iceberg. So by 2005 ‘paedo’ and ‘priest’ were already strong collocations, which have only become stronger as more reports have come in. It strikes me that the words in three gospels … Matthew, Mark and Luke should be writ large on the walls of every Catholic seminary and church.
But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Gospel According to St Matthew, 18:6 (New King James Version)
The play was worthy of its awards. It was reviewed the day before we saw it … five stars from both the most important ones … The Guardian and The Telegraph.
Sister Aloysius (Monica Dolan) is a nun, and principal of a Catholic school in the Bronx. We see her discussions with sweet Sister James (Jessica Rhodes) on teaching. Her opinions had laughter breaking out at so many apposite lines. I was at school in 1964, though not a Catholic one, and recognised so many things. Aloysius is a martinet who believes children should fear the school principal. She thinks art and music a waste of time and dismisses Sister James’s enthusiasm for history. She does not feel history is anything to be enthusiastic about. You could hear my generation laughing as she railed against ball point pens which made children ‘write like monkeys.’ Yes, very few of my teachers allowed ball-point pens. Decades later, speaking to experts on initial handwriting, I discovered they were largely correct, though finer point felt-tips are acceptable. It’s important that at this point in the play, she comes across as cold, overbearing and judgemental.
She is also suspicious of Father Flynn (Sam Spruell). He is younger, charismatic, teaches basketball, delivers persuasive and dramatic sermons. He is popular and like Sister James, believes teachers can exhibit warmth for their pupils. Aloysius is dismayed to hear he takes boys over to the rectory. She quizzes Sister James and it’s a marvel how they manage to discuss the unmentionable without mentioning it. She tries to discover more, and in a marvellous scene decides to confront him.
There must always be two nuns present with a male, so Sister James has to be there. Sister James looks upon Flynn in innocent admiration. They start discussing the Christmas Pageant where Aloysius is dismissive of adding secular songs (I won’t spoil a great dialogue). Then she starts to reveal her suspicions … exacerbated when she sees him writing with a ball point AND putting sugar in his tea. Most importantly, he takes her seat at the desk. He also not only has long fingernails, but boasts about them to the boys. Being a Catholic priest he finishes with a dire tale of someone who died horribly through having dirty fingernails.
We know that even the most senior nun, principal of a large school, must defer to a younger, more junior male priest. Her lack of power because she is female is a major theme. Blame St. Paul who largely created what we think of as Christianity.
The play is intriguing, highly dramatic as we struggle to see whether she is right or wrong. One issue now is that so much has emerged in the last twenty years on dodgy priests, that in 2022 you are strongly inclined to believe she is right … not only that but we rewatched the 2015 film of Spotlight just ten days ago. Maybe it was less so in 2004/5 (play) and 2008 (film of play).
Muller, an altar boy has come back to Sister James’s class after a visit to the rectory, in a state of turmoil with alcohol on his breath. Flynn says the boy was caught drinking the altar wine, and in compassion he let him off. Muller is the only negro in the school … the play rightly uses 1964 language, negro and coloured, rather than switching to modern PC sensibilities. Sister Aloysius points out that the wolf will always take the lone lamb, the one who isn’t in a group. The rest of the school is evenly divided Italian and Irish. So he is isolated, prey for a predator. Aloysius also knows that Flynn has been in three parishes in five years. The investigative journalists at the Boston Globe had found that was a clear indicator of a paedophile priest … being transferred when it became known, rather than dismissed.
Flynn gives a sermon on gossiping women as an evil, one of several monologues. Sister Aloysius invites the boy’s mother, Mrs Muller (Rebecca Sproggs) to the office and reveals her suspicions. Mrs Muller is not surprised, but also doesn’t care. She suspects her son is inclined to be gay, and her husband is a violent homophobe. Aoysius counters that twelve is not a point where adults make decisions for kids on their future sexuality.
I’d read about the play and Mrs Muller’s reasoning came as a surprise – I knew the mother was not concerned. I had thought back to a friend in the 90s who was convinced a priest (also a schoolteacher at a Catholic school) had tried to abuse her son. She was fobbed off totally by the church … more so, she was immediately ostracised by all the other mothers, who did not want to know.
I won’t plot spoil the final confrontation, but it is full of impassioned threats in both directions. Flynn resigns but as we hear in a coda, has been promoted to pastor in another parish.
We do not ever get an objective final answer. The play has played with our beliefs, our judgments for 90 minutes. They were absolutely right to play it without an interval too.
The set and design have been created for Chichester’s very large semi-circular, semi-thrust open stage. We were in the perfect position, front row, stage left (audience right), so that the garden scenes with their bare tree were just a few feet away. Sister Aloysius’s desk is stage left too. The rear right has the empty classroom in semi-darkness, which is highly effective, but an area used only once when Sister James opens the play by writing a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the board. The omnipresent lighted cross is, as the programme notes, actually an empty space in place of a cross. For us it was one of the best theatre experiences in years, but I did wonder how compromised the viewing angles were from ‘audience left’ which was a long way from most of the action.
It’s on for another week. You could walk in on the day and get really excellent seats judging by the Saturday matinee, usually one of the best-attended performances at Chichester. If you can get there, do. Eat in the Brasserie before. Chichester is always a pleasant day out. Also, choose audience right (stage left).
I would have bought a play script – Chichester usually sell them, but they didn’t have any. I wanted to see the many memorable lines in print. (I have ordered it from amazon). I expect the next edition (when it gets to London) will have this production on the cover.
Writing reviews near the end of their run can be a thankless task with fewer than normal hits than long-running plays. However, Chichester has a superb record of moving productions to London a few months or a year later. Given the reviews (and probable awards) this is a prime candidate. I fully expect the hits to come if (or when) it opens in London.
MY RATING: 5 stars *****
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:
5 stars
Claire Allfree, Telegraph *****
Arifa Akbar, Guardian *****
4 stars
Donald Hutera, The Times, ****
Tom Wicker, The Stage ****
Paige Cochrane, Broadway World ****
LINKS ON THIS BLOG
JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY
Wild Mountain Thyme (film, 2021)
SAM SPRUELL
Othello, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, 2017 (Iago)
MONICA DOLAN
The Dig (film, 2021)
Leave a comment