Today was the Racine Theater Guild’s final performance of a play which I love above all others- Doubt: A Parable, by John Patrick Shanley. My very first encounter with this play came when I watched the Tony Awards one year and was mesmerized by a brief clip from one of the most nominated plays of the year. It showed a nun and priest roaring angrily at one another- and I knew that I had to know more about the play from which that searing scene was taken, but never did take the time to look up any information. And then the following summer, Kathy and I were in New York City and I was presented with the opportunity to see this play on Broadway, with the same cast of four brilliant actors who garnered four Tony nominations among them and won two, and the same production which had earned the Best Play award in a landslide. And from a front row center seat I was blessed with the single most powerful experience I had ever had in a theater…. and that counts every play I’d ever seen and every opera as well. Never had I found myself so completely enveloped in what unfolded onstage. Never had the outside world seemed so far away. Never had a play penetrated into my being so vividly. And never ever had a theatrical experience so powerfully haunted me in the hours, days, weeks, and months thereafter.
In a nutshell: The story unfolds in a Bronx Catholic high school, led by a crusty veteran nun named Sister Aloysius. The teachers on her staff include the young, enthusiastic but inexperienced Sister James, whose teaching style and attitude could not be more different from the principal’s. The two nuns become suspicious of the parish priest, Father Flynn, who has taken a special interest in the school’s first African-American student; they fear that the priest has made improper advances on the youngster. The balance of the play involves Sister Aloysius’s efforts to get the priest to admit his wrongdoing and resign his position. But beyond all that, the play explores faith, doubt, and certainty and their powerful effect on us – and of what it’s like to weather the buffeting winds of change such as the Catholic Church experienced in the aftermath of Vatican II.
When I saw this play on Broadway, I was by myself at a Wednesday matinee (Kathy having opted for a light-hearted musical instead) – sitting right in the middle of the very front row, which helped to make it an especially potent and personal experience for me. In fact, as the lights came up and people began filing out, I remained seated, sobbing pretty much uncontrollably – not so much for any sadness from the story but rather an overwhelming sense of gratitude at having witnessed something so brilliant in every way. Anyway, I must have looked like a real mess because as the older couple who had sat next to me filed past, the woman leaned over to me and gently whispered into my ear “You must be Catholic.” I just smiled through the tears streaming down my cheeks, but of course she was wrong. I’m not Catholic – and there isn’t anything in this play that touches directly on my real life experience at all. And yet somehow it reached into the deepest corners of my soul and spoke to me like no play before or since.
And the play has continued to affect me very powerfully, no matter how many times I see it. I saw it twice in Chicago – again with the magnificent Tony Award winning Cherry Jones in the lead role – once with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater – once at Carthage – and of course the film with Meryl Streep. And although none of these subsequent performances had quite the impact of that first encounter on Broadway (needless to say) each and every performance has moved me to tears, including the three performances I’ve seen at the Racine Theater Guild. I had obviously seen this play done with world class productions, and didn’t know how the good folks of the RTG would compare. But the finest moments of the RTG production compared favorably to any of those other performances I’d seen, and the closing moments left me completely shattered.
What makes me sad is that so few people turned out for the RTG’s production. People flock to zany farces like “Nancy Needs a Nightie” but when a truly stupendous drama like “Doubt” comes along, most people just can’t be bothered. I suspect that a lot of people heard just enough about the play to be scared off, assuming that it will be three hours of bleak, disturbing unhappiness. But if those people who stayed away had given “Doubt” a chance, I’m sure that many of them would have been delighted by its many hilariously funny moments as well as its captivating suspense . . . a thought-provoking play in the richest sense of the word . . . that rare sort of play where most audience members are talking about it as they walk to their cars and probably all the way home as well. But I also know that these are rough times in which we’re living, and maybe it should come as no surprise that the entertainment most people are seeking out these days is heavy on laughs and light on furrowed brows. That’s why it was a courageous choice on the part of the RTG to include such a heavy play in its season, knowing full well that some frothy comedy would sell better. I just hope that the small crowds will not discourage the RTG from doing more plays like this. All of us who were saw “Doubt” feel so much richer for having experienced it, and the RTG will be an artistically poorer place if the next “Doubt”-type play is passed over in favor of one more “Nancy Needs a Nightie.”
Thank you, RTG, for giving us the chance to experience “Doubt” on your stage. Thank you, cast and crew and director Norm McPhee, for presenting the play with such excellence. And thank you, John Patrick Shanley, for giving this remarkable play to us in the first place.
pictured above: The four actors in RTG’s production of “Doubt” receive the grateful applause of the audience. All three performances I saw ended with heartfelt and fully deserved standing ovations.