KSU cast brings ‘Doubt’ to life

By Milan Paurich

Criticshave seen parallels between the play and the buildup to the Iraq war.

’Tis the season of “Doubt.” Less than a month after John Patrick Shanley’s acclaimed drama bowed at the Oakland Center for the Arts, another production of the Pulitzer, Tony and Drama Desk award-winning play opened Friday night at Kent State Trumbull Theatre.

Whether it’s something in the water — or simply a desire to capitalize on the highly-anticipated film version starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman scheduled for release at year’s end — I’m not certain.

When “Doubt, a Parable” opened in late 2004, critics debated whether the witch-hunting campaign waged against Father Flynn by Sister Aloysius was a thinly-veiled allegory about the buildup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In her stubborn determination to strip away any lingering uncertainty about Father Flynn’s guilt [or innocence], there was an unmistakable whiff of George W. Bush to the autocratic parochial school principal’s embrace of moral absolutes.

Just as the unproven fear of WMDs launched a holy crusade of biblical proportions, Sister Aloysius’ lack of proof (“I have my certainty”) is no stumbling block in her vendetta against Father Flynn.

The play’s overriding theme (“What do you do when you’re not sure?”) could be applied to virtually any instance where ambiguity risks being usurped by a predetermined agenda.

That perceived Iraq metaphor just proved a convenient marketing hook to help sell a show with only four characters, a period setting (The Bronx in 1964) and no flashy special effects or musical production numbers to send audiences home happy.

The fascinating thing about “Doubt” is that every production is open to new interpretations.

Director Daniel-Raymond Nadon emphasizes the play’s detective story aspects (is Father Flynn guilty of molesting one of his young students?) at the expense of its larger, richer moral implications. In fact, there’s so little, well, doubt about Flynn’s culpability in Nadon’s somewhat reductionist staging that the title itself seems a tad disingenuous. Shanley’s refusal to demonize either Aloysius or Flynn is lost amidst a rush to judgment.

Even without that psychological shading — or any real nuance — “Doubt” remains a compelling evening of theater. For that, Nadon has his principal actors to thank. Both Donnagene Palmer (Sister Aloysius) and Joseph Toto (Father Flynn) give refreshingly naturalistic performances that emphasize the characters’ essential, if flawed humanity.

As the idealistic young nun being used as an unwitting pawn by Aloysius in her attempt to defame Flynn, Maria Wright is suitably, abjectly touching. And Dawn deFoor-Jackson makes the most of her one scene as the stunningly pragmatic mother of the student who may or may not be the victim of Flynn’s untoward advances.

Nadon somewhat overdoses on the Gregorian chant music used as a connective thread between scenes: It comes across as less atmospheric than heavy-handed.

Acoustic problems in the theater’s intimate venue occasionally make it difficult to hear all of Shanley’s barbed, bracing dialogue.

Performed sans intermission, “Doubt” has a propulsive intensity that has nothing to do with political subtext and everything to do with the old-fashioned verities of a well-made play.