WHAT: Doubt: A Parable, a Pulitzer Prize
WHERE: Firehouse Center for the Arts
BLURB: A Ponderer With No Easy Answer
HIGH POINT: Jim Manclark's performance
The Firehouse offers a solid, albeit mixed, production of Doubt: A Parable, a Pulitzer Prize winning play that explores layers of moral dilemma through the lens of a difficult subject.
The play features so much more than its surface storyline. Doubt is, as stated, is a story as a lesson, more about its questions than story. That said, the subject proves a perfect vehicle for exploring the weight of words, certainty, faith, and above all the place and value of doubt.
The play is set in the 1960s, in a small Roman Catholic school, set beside its rectory.
Sister Aloysius (Bonnie Jean Wilbur) is a conservative among conservatives, a stalwart of the hard line. She's a woman who believes you assume the worst first, question everyone's word, stick to a set of iron-clad rules, and dole out punishment. She's a defender of what is right, as she sees it, and gives her life to that cause.
Aloysius has set her sights on Father Brendan Flynn (Jim Manclark), a liberal, forward-thinking parish priest. She believes he is guilty of being inappropriate with a young, vulnerable 8th grade boy, the sole black child in the school.
There's no proof. Aloysius's intuition, and the belief she's honed her skills of perception to perfection are her sole proof. There is no evidence.
Still, she believes, and is determined to either prove it, or find a way to remove Father Flynn. The rules of the day limit her recourse, but it doesn't stop her from confronting and threatening the priest.
To help her cause she strong-arms Sister James (Mary Sapp), a kind, young woman, into being a cohort in the priest's demise.
The dynamics of the script rely entirely on its performances. Most often things work, though there are occasional misses - a heavy hand or a tentative one.
Manclark , as Father Flynn, brings the full mix of this character to stage, all its questionable, sympathetic, and complex colors. The production hinges and succeeds almost entirely on this strong performance.
Wilbur's Aloysius is portrayed as a thoroughly unlikable person. It's largely as written, but whether through actor or director's choice, Wilbur leans heavily into a more caricature portrayal. This limitedly nuanced performance allows for less complexity of her character, giving it a one-dimensional hardness, which in turn skews empathies.
Sapp, as the younger Sister James, initially appears hesitant, but quickly builds to a sweet, sympathetic character.
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