I have doubt...

I saw Doubt by John Patrick Shanley at the Abbey Theatre tonight. It was my first time in the audience for a production in the Abbey Theatre, although I did see The Alice Trilogy last week at the Peacock Theatre which is their downstairs, smaller space.

I had the pleasure and privilege of seeing a production of this play in New York when I was on my graduate school research trip. (I also saw the revival of Sweeney Todd on that trip. The one with Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris. It was amazing!) The show won 4 Tony awards in 2005 (best play, best actress, best featured actress, best director).

When I saw the show in New York, the Principal Sister Aloysius was played by Eileen Atkins, the young sister by Jenna Malone, the priest by Ron Eldard, and the student's mother by Adriane Lenox. I am very glad I saw this production because it was more intimate in its use of space and the performances were excellent. The balance between Sister Aloysius's severity and structure, the Sister James's innocence and optimism, and Father Flynn's charisma and charm did justice to the nuances within the script in a way that the Abbey Theatre production did not. (And when Mrs. Muller came on, there was another series of revelations that were painful while being honest.) The efforts of the Abbey's Sister Aloysius didn't reach an urgency beyond machinations and all the references to her coldness fell flat because she didn't have the air of authority about her. (And Sister James did not seem to have the fear of God struck into her by being in the same room as Sister Aloysius.)

The best thing about this production was seeing it after reading texts about women's role in society and culture in Ireland. Although it is set in the US, I appreciated much more the Sister Aloysius's position as she tries to navigate the biases inherent in the Catholic Church in the 1960s and her limited circle of influence. That and hearing the priest put on an Irish accent at one point. (That got a good chuckle from the Irish audience.) OH! I almost forgot about this! The play opens with Father Flynn giving a sermon on doubt. There's the actor in all his 1960s priestly splendor. At the end of the sermon, he makes the sign of the cross and says, "In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen." There is a brief black-out before the next scene and the audience is tittering and shifting in their seats because people either did or barely restrained themselves from making the sign of the cross upon hearing those words. Hilarious! I even felt a momentary pang of guilt at not making the sign of the cross before I remembered that I was at a play and not at Mass.

For those who are interested, the touring production is coming to San Francisco. It actually may be there as of today. Cherry Jones, the first Sister Aloysius on Broadway (and Hallie Flanagan in Tim Robbins' film Cradle Will Rock), will be doing it as well as Adriane Lenox, both of whom won Tony awards for their work on Broadway. That will probably be worth seeing.