What Do You Believe, Review of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt”

Inspired by the shocking revelations of priest-abuse scandals Doubt is the story of a nun who suspects her parish priest of abusing one of the altar boys.  The nun, Sister Aloysius, is overcome with feelings of doubt, knowing she will be unable to bring Father Flynn to justice and unsure of her own suspicions and the faith she is supposed to have in the priest.  Finally Sister Aloysius confronts Father Flynn herself, and while she wins a small victory for her school is unable to put an end to Father Flynn’s abuses at other schools.

The play Doubt deals with a topic that disillusioned and outraged many in the Catholic church and truly does raise the question of how to believe.  Shanley has captured the dynamics of the Church and the inner struggle of a nun forced to see beyond blind faith and fight for her students.

Seeing the play performed is much more interesting than reading the play alone.  While the topic is full of tension and controversy reading the play alone leaves a lot to be desired.  Most of the scenes are quiet discussions between Sister Aloysius and Sister James, with even the altercations between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn being quiet and subdued.  There is also no real conclusion to the play, while the audience may side with Sister Aloysius and see that Father Flynn’s actions are suspicious, inappropriate, the only person who sees them that way is Sister Aloysius.  While Father Flynn resigns from his position at her parish school he simply moves on to another school, one with a less suspicious Mother Superior where he can continue his crimes.

A well written and shocking play, this one was definitely meant to be performed.  While reading the script takes only a few hours at most you’ll be missing the full effect if you opt to skip the performance.