By Diana Nollen
The Gazette
January 17, 2008
http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/NEWS/544243383/1006/news
IOWA CITY — Google "parable" and the definitions range from "simile" to "a short fictional story told to illustrate one or more moral points."
"Doubt: A Parable," however, raises more questions than it answers. The 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning play will unfold Jan. 25 to Feb. 17 at Riverside Theatre, 213 N. Gilbert St. A free discussion on the play will begin at 5:30 tonight at the theater.
Set in 1964 at a Catholic school in the Bronx, the play's conflict arises when the principal, Sister Aloysius, grows suspicious of Father Flynn's intentions as he befriends a new student, the only African-American boy at the school. She has no proof of wrongdoing, just a gut reaction, and what she does with that reaction sets the play in motion.
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| Bob GoodfellowTim Budd of Iowa City stars as Father Flynn in Riverside Theatre's upcoming production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Doubt: A Parable." Conflict stirs doubt when a nun questions Flynn's actions as he befriends a young male student at a Catholic school in 1964. |
Director Bruce Wheaton, 60, of Iowa City, says the play goes beyond a topical examination of clerical sexual abuse grabbing headlines today.
"You probably wouldn't win a Pulitzer for rehashing the newspapers," Wheaton says. "The playwright doesn't seem all that interested in trying to whip the priest or badger the Catholic church. It's unclear what actually happened (between the priest and the boy) so rather than providing preachy answers or indictments about individual clergy or particular lines of faith, the play asks questions: How much comfort do you risk when you're not sure what's right. How far does one's individual certainty go in determining guilt or innocence of a person."
Riverside's artistic director, Jody Hovland, 57, of Iowa City, plays Sister Aloysius. "It's important to remember that it's set in 1964," she says. "It was a very different time, just after Vatican II, at a time when things were changing all over the country, particularly in the church, wrestling between an old and new order.
"More than anything what this play represents is the different generations, with a nun in her 20s, my character in her 50s or 60s representing a sterner order, and a priest who's in the middle.
"It really provokes a discussion about faith versus doubt and the greater courage it may take to have doubt," Hovland says.
Producing the Tony award-winning play is a coup for the professional troupe anchored in Iowa City.
"Riverside just needed to exercise the virtue of patience," Hovland says. "We waited in line for it for two years. We kept regularly calling the New York agency and asking when it was going to be available to regional theaters." Riverside had to wait until the national tour was over. When that day came last spring, Hovland grabbed the phone and said, "Come on, make my day."
"We were just thrilled at the opportunity to produce it," she says.
The script, by John Patrick Shanley, has "very efficient writing," Wheaton says. "There are almost no extra words and the play is structured in such a way as to provide a very accessible evening for the audience. It does that without sacrificing a sophisticated sense of ambiguity. It's no mean trick to write a play that's both provocative and accessible."
Hovland calls it "a page turner of a play," with action so compelling that the show is being done without an intermission. It also shows "tremendous humor," Hovland says, "which sometimes people think isn't possible with a drama. ... Anybody who's been to Catholic school will resonate with some of the scenes — it has good Catholic school humor."
She also likes that her role is "chewy." Hovland calls the sister "a force of nature, an incredibly strong woman. She takes no prisoners; she's manipulative, deeply certain about her convictions and relentless, so she drives the action of the play."
Hovland hopes audiences will be talking about the show "a long time after the curtain comes down."
"It's such great 'what-if' material," she says. "It will not provide the audience with a tidy answer, and that's the kind of drama I find most exciting. It asks you to be involved in the central questions of the play."
Contact the writer: diana.nollen@gazettecommunications.com or (319) 368-8508.
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