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	Award-Winning Play 'Doubt' Makes Its Boston Premiere By Rosemary Ford The Eagle-Tribune [Boston MA] February 8, 2007 http://www.eagletribune.com/pulife/local_story_039120304?keyword=secondarystory Despite the Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize and countless spoilers about the play "Doubt," star Cherry Jones just doesn't want to weigh in on the central question at the heart of the story. Jones plays Sister Aloysius, a nun who worries a priest she works with is abusing one of her students. The eight-time Tony-winning play comes to Boston's Colonial Theatre this week for a limited run. "It's amazing that anyone can go home absolutely certain," the 50-year-old actress said in a phone interview during the play's recent run in Chicago. "Certainty is so much more comfortable than uncertainty. It's more comfortable and comforting to know you are right; we just can't always." She's played Sister Aloysius more than 500 times (and won a Tony for her portrayal), and each time she never really answers the question - even in her own mind - about what really happened. It's up to the audience: to believe, to not believe or to stay in doubt themselves. "(The play) really is about doubt and uncertainty, and how we judge and how we make our decisions," Jones said. "Honestly, the play is less about what we are doing on stage and more about what the audience is putting themselves through watching it. It's an intensely personal play for everyone in the audience, because they have to look at how they make judgments." This is the play's first stop in Boston, a city that found itself at the center of a sexual abuse scandal involving members of the Catholic clergy and children in their charges over several decades across several communities and churches, including many North of Boston. "As an actress, you have to put that out of your mind, because it is 1964 for me," Jones said. "I just have to put that out of my mind." To Jones, Boston is another stop on the tour, and she doesn't expect things here to get any more emotional than any other stop on the tour. Wherever she's performed, she's encountered abuse survivors and even members of the clergy who've been wrongly accused. "It's very emotional for (the wrongly accused) and for any child who has been sexually abused by an adult," she said. "I do carry that responsibility on stage of knowing this is not some fictional event that has no basis. It makes you try to be better at this job." Jones says "Doubt" isn't just about one incident or even the clergy abuse scandal itself. She finds that this play has a more universal message, one she hopes will keep it topical for the next 500 years. "I don't think anything will have changed in human nature," Jones said. "It's a parable - it reminds all of us that we must keep open minds and open hearts to one another - and yes, decisions have to be made, but you have to start with as open a heart and a mind as you can, or we are all going to end up at each other's throats." She's also gratified that both nuns and priests have told her how much they like the play. "It is so fair, it is a loving portrayal of the Church," Jones said. "Denigrating the Church is not the purpose of this play." From the moment she read "Doubt," Jones thought the play was brilliant, describing it as "lean, musical and exciting." "There is a great fairness to it, and I knew that it would have mass appeal. It is something the country needs to hear right now. We have lost our ability to listen to one another," she said. The actress, who already had a Tony on her shelf before "Doubt," worried she wouldn't get a chance to play the role because two other actresses were being considered for the part. Both turned it down. From the moment she got the role, Jones said she began working on her portrayal of Sister Aloysius - starting with the way she stands. "The very first thing I think about is trying to find the spine of the character," she said. "Does she stand tall, is she hunched over, and how does that affect her? I am letting what goes on externally lead me to what's internal." Jones also knew, because she'd be wearing a habit on stage, that the silhouette of the sister would be very important to how the audience sees her. "I stooped a bit, because I wanted her to have some frailty, in contrast to this white-hot will she has," she said. "That helped me." Sister Aloysius has evolved in other ways as well. She's become more idiosyncratic since her days treading Broadway's boards. Occasionally, Jones notices other changes to the character as well, which sometimes surprises her since she's the one doing them and doesn't notice. "It's like growing older, sometimes you look in the mirror, and you think how did that happen? I feel the shape of her has remained fairly consistent - it's so strong on the page, there is only so much I can do to change that," she said. Whatever the reason or the combination, things seem to work. Jones remembers one night in New York, during a blizzard that dropped two feet of snow on the city. She still played that evening to a packed house - and 50 people were waiting outside to take the seats of ticketholders who might not show up. "It was so remarkable to see people's hunger for this play," Jones said. "It's like people were starving and they didn't know they were starving until they saw it. I can't think of another play quite like it in my 30 years of theater." If you go * What: "Doubt" * When: Now through Feb. 18 * Where: Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St., Boston * How: $37.50 to $87.50. Call Ticketmaster at 617-931-2787, visit www.ticketmaster.com or purchase directly at the box office.
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