Earlier this fall, Kathy and I got to see a dear friend of ours, Elizabeth Rude, perform the lead role in what has come to be my very favorite play above all others – Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley. Liz, whose friendship with Kathy goes back to their student days at Carthage, is one of those remarkable actresses who can immerse herself in a wide range of characters with apparent ease … and I also love the way in which she can be such a potent, vivid presence on the stage and yet seem so very authentic and unaffected. (I find that lots of actors who manage the former are not as good as the latter. She does both.) She is first-rate and we have loved everything we have ever seen her do on stage.
When it came to this production, however, I must confess to looking forward to it with a rather strange mixture of excitement and anxiousness. I was excited because it was our gifted friend Liz performing in my favorite play. And odd though it may sound, I was anxious exactly because it was our gifted friend Liz performing in my favorite play.
I’m sure that sounds weird, but it’s because I am unbelievably fussy when it comes to this play and especially with how the main character, Sister Aloysius, is portrayed. I was blessed to see Cherry Jones, the amazing actress for whom the role was written, three times onstage …. once in the original Broadway production and twice in Chicago when she did the role on a national tour. The four productions I have seen since – and, in particular, every performance of the role of Sister Aloysius – ends up being compared to that Tony Award winning performance that left me so emotionally shattered. This production was the first time that I was going to be watching a good friend undertake this role- and for as much as I admired Liz’s spectacular gifts as an actress, it was impossible for me to imagine such a sunny, joyous person assuming the role of the crusty, no-nonsense Sister Aloysius who has become convinced that the parish’s priest has done something inappropriate with a child and is grimly determined to stop him and remove him. It was going to be a case of Liz undertaking a part so utterly different from who she is- and a role that is immense both in terms of number of lines as well as in its emotional intensity. And above all, I worried that I would not be able to forget that it was our friend Liz up on that stage. And although I have an almost unparalleled gift for being able to fake enthusiasm about something that didn’t actually impress me, I wasn’t sure when it came to a play I care so deeply about that I would be able to mask my disappointment. All of that was swirling through my mind as Kathy and I settled into our seats in the auditorium of Oakton Community College to see Doubt.
As it turns out, I need not have worried. In a feat of theatrical brilliance that absolutely floored me, Liz managed to embody the character of Sister Aloysius with absolute perfection. For about five seconds, I was watching Liz- and after that, I was watching Sister Aloysius as she travels on her wrenching emotional journey. Liz served up every facet of this endlessly fascinating character- the curmudgeon railing against modern conveniences, the brutally blunt supervisor of the young nuns on her staff, the stalwart guardian of her students’s safety and well-being, the tenacious foe of the priest she believes has done wrong, and the woman of God whose fierce exterior sometimes obscures the kind heart beneath. All that and more is wrapped up in the person of Sister Aloysius and Liz embodied it all, right up to the poignant final moments of the play when we finally see the first hints of doubt in this towering force of nature. It was a deeply affecting performance in every way.
It’s important to say that the play (unlike the film) involves a cast of four – so the chemistry between the four actors is exceedingly important. Liz delivered her performance opposite three cast mates who were much younger and much less experienced, however talented they might have been- but one had a sense that the energy and authority of Liz’s performance lifted the others to a higher level. It left me even more impressed with Liz as both a superb actor as well as a generous, exemplary colleague.
My fervent hope is that Liz will have the opportunity to perform the iconic role of Sister Aloysius again – and if and when she does, Kathy and I will be there to cheer on our good friend in the role of a lifetime.
Pictured below: Liz and Kathy right after the performance.
