“If you’re looking for reassurance, you can be fooled. If you forget yourself and study others, you will not be fooled.”
Wise words indeed from Father Flynn, key character in director Lindsay Posner’s new revival of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt a parable, which originally premiered on Broadway in 2005 and was later adapted by Shanley for a 2008 film version starring Meryl Streep and the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.
But whether you look for reassurance within this taut, unsettling drama – set in the parish of St Nicholas in New York’s Bronx in the mid-1960s and focusing on a Catholic school principal intent on outing a priest that she firmly believes to be serious wrong ‘un – or study the characters with forensic intensity, this production will leave you in no doubt regarding the power of modern theatre at its best.
Maxine Peake brings traditional, rigidly conservative Sister Aloysius Beauvier to frank, forthright life, almost (but never quite) allowing a soft underbelly of compassion and vulnerability to peek through the stringent adherence to duty and responsibility that she wraps around her as tightly as she binds her habit.
As young, impressionable, enthusiastic teacher Sister James, Holly Godliman is in mild, meek opposition to her superior’s arch superiority, torn between conceding to Sister Aloysius’ experience and making her own case for Father Flynn’s innocence; after all, Sister Aloysius has no firm proof of Father Flynn’s alleged misconduct other than the behaviour of new pupil Donald Muller, the 12-year-old boy at the epicentre of the narrative, who we learn returned to the classroom following a one-to-one meeting with Father Flynn slightly discombobulated, and with the smell of alcohol on his breath. As for Father Flynn…
Compassionate, progressive, humane. Or! Mulish, arrogant…holier than thou? Whichever way he turns (and takes us) Ben Daniels’ compelling performance demands attention; very rarely do we see him flinch under Sister Aloysius’ condemnations and even then, we’re not sure if his discomfit is the result of guilt, arch frustration or honest, ethical righteousness.
Has Sister Aloysius seen behind Father Flynn’s vestment of superficially amiable goodwill and mustered up the strength to call a power-abusing sleazeball to task – or is she confusing the principled enthusiasm of a Catholic progressive with far more sinister motivations? Are the pocket book notes that Father Flynn takes incessantly really to be used as inspiration for his sermons – or is he building an armoury of ‘victimisation’ evidence to defend himself should some kind of professional misconduct hearing arise? While all this is going on…
We never get to hear Donald Muller’s side of the story. We do, however, learn quite a lot about him from Mrs Muller (Rachel John) who is called to the school for a meeting with Sister Aloysius.
Donald is the first African-American student ever to attend the school. His father is a violent bully, and Mrs Muller infers that a large part of Mr Muller’s aggression towards his son is due to the fact that both parents suspect that he might be gay. Red herring alert?
Okay, so Shanley’s original script was written some 50+ years ago, before endemic sexual abuse in the Catholic church made the headlines, back when Black pupils were rarely offered places in all-white schools and homosexuality was illegal in 49 of 50 states in America. But even back then, if allegations of inappropriate behaviour between priest/teacher and pupil were to be put under the microscope, should the pupil’s ethnic origin, home life or sexuality influence the discourse?
Questions, questions, questions! And there’s yet another one to consider: does Posner’s production of DOUBT a parable serve to direct us towards a clear conclusion? While the focus on a fast-paced script gives the characters the space and pace to skilfully light all manner of moral fireworks, the ambiguity of the final scene leaves the audience a little bit short changed – or maybe, for you, it won’t?
But regardless of the visceral reaction route that DOUBT a parable leads you down (and it is indeed a ‘light the blue touch paper’ debate-motivator), it remains to be a challenging, provocative, compelling drama, timeless and timely, nuanced, intelligent and handsomely produced.
DOUBT a parable is at Ustinov Studio/Theatre Royal Bath until Saturday 8 March
theatreroyal.org.uk
Image credit; Simon Annand
