Review Preview: Doubt

So me and the missus took the Porsche to New Brunswick Saturday night to see "Doubt" at George Street Playhouse, and, wouldn't you know it, the valet parking was full and closed.

Don't you hate when that happens?

True story, but allow me to clarify: I've got a Porsche Cayenne on loan for a week to do a story on this four-wheeled, 400-horsepower high-roller suite.

No, I cannot afford a Porsche on a blogger's salary.

Anyway, here's a review of "Doubt" from a 10-year altar boy who, for the record, was never abused on or off the job. The only thing I worry about is the long-term effects of beathing in all that incense.

Theater review
If you want to go:
What: “Doubt”
When: through Dec. 23
Where: George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick
How much: $28 to $64
Info: (732) 246-7717; www.gsponline.org

By WILLIAM WESTHOVEN
Staff Writer
Having conquered Broadway, the most celebrated new play of the millennium is now on the regional theater circuit. Having made its way to New Brunswick, there’s no doubt that “Doubt” is having a similar impact in New Jersey.
John Patrick Shanley’s powerhouse drama touts the aura of an Ali-Frazier fight at the Garden. In a single 90-minute act, some clever wordplay precedes a few rounds of bobbing and weaving before two heavyweights trade life-changing blows.
But instead of athletes in boxer shorts, Shanley matches soldiers of the cloth. In this corner, Sister Aloysius (Ann Dowd) is a no-nonsense principal of a Catholic School in the Bronx. In the other corner, charming Father Flynn (Dylan Chalfy), who may be engaging in some inappropriate nonsense with an adolescent male student.
In any era, the pairing puts Aloysius at a disadvantage, but particularly so in 1964, when the diocesan order would all but forbid even a principal nun to reprimand a priest.
“There’s no man I can go to, and the men run everything,” Aloysius tells her reluctant confidant, the brittle Sister James (Meghan Andrews). But full of righteous indignation, Aloysius mounts a crusade to force a confession out of the charismatic priest, who denies it all.
The sensitive subject matter adds a keen focus to the drama, but is secondary to the psychological conflict. The play’s opening lines, spoken by Flynn while preaching a sermon to the audience, put the author’s goal out front.
“What do you do when you’re not sure?” he asks. “Doubt can be a bond as powerful as certainty. When you have doubt, you are not alone.”
Aloysuis, though, has no doubts, despite her lack of evidence or witnesses. All she needed to see was one child pull his hand back when brushed by Flynn’s, and she knew what was going on.
“How can you be so sure?” James asks. “Experience,” Alyosius says, confident enough to lie and break vows to protect the children in her charge.
The quietly powerful conclusion measures justice for all, but some suffer more for their crimes than others. If you leave with doubt that everyone got what they deserved, you, too, will not be alone.
“Doubt” certainly won’t be mistaken for the feel-good holiday show of the season, but for people who crave a challenging night of theater regardless of the calendar, this production stands in a crowd of stocking-stuffer competition. Shanley, whose resume includes the screenplays for both the wonderful “Moonstruck” and the painfully bad “Joe vs. the Volcano,” has crafted a taught thriller that’s part mystery and part morality tale, a sledgehammer of conflict tempered with a delicate complement of humor and nostalgia.
Baby boomer graduates of Catholic school will laugh—and possibly wince—at early scenes in which Aloysius instructs James to curb her enthusiasm and deliver her lessons with a cold discipline. Dowd is an intimidating force of nature, dispensing her precise direction with syncopated diction. Still, you can’t help but laugh when she rails about the pagan heresy of “Frosty the Snowman,” or how ball-point pens lead to lazy children who “write like monkeys.”
Andrews is easy to identify and sympathize with, as she smoothly evolves from an eager novitiate to a conflicted educator who can’t understand how doing the right thing may require her to distance herself from God.
Chalfy also is convincing as the handsome priest whose charm works on everyone except Aloysius, while Rosalyn Coleman is slightly chilling in her single scene, as the mother of an abused child who is willing to look the other way as long as the boy graduates.
Director Anders Cato makes good use of the theater’s rotating stage. There’s only two sets—the principal’s Spartan office (set designer Hugh Landwehr nails the time and place, right down to the multicolored cinder blocks) and a weathered courtyard—but we experience the courtyard from different angles as different sides of the story are explored.
Now an essential part of the American theater landscape, there surely will be many future opportunities to see a production of this Pulitzer and Tony-winning treasure. But with the Broadway-level standard of this “Doubt,” there’s no reason to wait until next time.