Living without doubt is as near impossible as living with certainty.
Certainty brings people together, but so does doubt.
Doubt is a broad church.
Doubt pervades all cultures; it is a most human instinct and drives the search for truth.
A perceived truth may be so strong nothing will induce doubt.
John Patrick Shanley explores these themes in his 2004 Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play – Doubt, A Parable.
Set in St Nicholas Catholic School, The Bronx in 1964, Sister Aloysius (Jayne Taini) is convinced that popular Father Flynn (John Behlmann) is plying an altar boy with communion wine in order to abuse him. Father Flynn – who the dialect coach furnished with a
He likens her action to someone who takes a feather pillow to the roof and slits it with a knife, scattering the feathers in the winds and four corners of the world. Gathering those feathers and stuffing them back in the pillow is like trying to redress a defamed reputation, says Flynn
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the play was the determination of Sister Aloysius to confront Father Flynn, concocting her own lies to trap him, which she never does.
She attempts to enlist the help of the boy's mother Mrs. Muller (Lisa Renee Pitts) who instead providing help makes a passionate plea for the Sister to turn a blind eye so that her son, and the only black child at the school, can graduate and have an opportunity to attend a better school.
"It's only 'til the end of term," she pleads.
Father Flynn resigns under the relentless pressure from Sister Aloysius, and is promptly promoted to lead an order and school in another city.
Did Sister Aloysius do the right thing? In the end she agonizes and doubts both her own actions and those of Father Flynn who she accused so zealously.
The play, staged
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