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Shanley's Inspired Doubts
A priest gives a sermon about living with doubt.
A child pulls away his wrist when the priest touches it.
A nun observes these ambiguous events and has no doubt about what they mean.
In the strait-laced, strong-willed mind of Sister Aloysius, the principal of a Catholic elementary school, doubt makes her weak. It diminishes her faith. Worst of all, doubt would allow the evil that she knows is happening to continue.
But is this evil of priestly pedophilia, of which Sister Aloysius is absolutely certain, really occurring? And is the remedy she is hellbent on implementing the right one? And if she succeeds, what will that do to her?
Questions are at the heart of "DOUBT," the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play by John Patrick Shanley that is having its Washington debut at the National Theatre in a two-week engagement ending March 25.
The 90-minute production, in which veteran stage actress Cherry Jones reprises her Tony-winning Broadway role as Sister Aloysius, whistles by like a fast-track train. You are still digesting the dramatic twists of one scene when the next begins. You side with the priest, then with the nun. You are certain you know the truth, then you're suddenly unsure. Even the stage set befuddles. Wasn't that statue of Jesus next to the window, not in front of it, in the last garden scene?
By the end of the production, you are where Shanley wants you to be: Pondering how the multi-facted reality that we call life can be lived without doubt.
The playwright, who met nuns like Sister Aloysius at his own grade school in the Bronx, calls his work a 'parable.' Like those stories found in the sacred scriptures of many faiths, it's not the facts that matter so much as their interpretation.
And although "DOUBT" revolves around a situation that evokes the recent clergy sex scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, Shanley raises questions about the larger context of our contemporary public discourse on all matters, including religion, politics and war.
"We are living in a courtroom culture…of extreme advocacy, of confrontation, of judgment, and of verdict…Communication has become a contest of wills," Shanley wrote in an essay about his play. "Maybe it's because deep down under the chatter we have come to a place where we know that we don't know…anything. But nobody's willing to say that."
Shanley, a former U.S. Marine, echoes what saints and scholars of deep religious conviction have concluded down through the ages: That doubt is no sin, and perhaps even necessary, for growing into a living faith. "It is Doubt (so often experienced initially as weakness) that changes things," Shanley wrote in the same essay. "When a man feels unsteady, when he falters, when hard-won knowledge evaporates before his eyes, he's on the verge of growth.
"Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite-it is a passionate exercise," he added. "We've got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. That's the silence under the chatter of our time."
Dressed in green vestments, the amiable Father Brendan Flynn, played by Chris McGarry, opens the play with his sermon on doubt by asking, "What do you do when you're not sure?" Not to worry, adds the priest who also coaches the boy's basketball team, because "doubt can be a bond as firm as certainty."
His nemesis Sister Aloysius, who believes that a "restless mind" is "not a good thing" and who is universally feared by her students, valiantly deflects challenges to her rock-solid conviction that Flynn is a child molester. But even she recognizes that battling perceived evil sometimes requires compromise. "In pursuit of wrong-doing, one steps away from God," she notes. "Of course, there's a price."
And she will pay that price.
Playwright Shanley, who also wrote the Oscar-winning sceenplay for the 1987 movie "Moonstruck," has punctuated his deeply probing and beautifully scripted play with plenty of wit, offering moments of laughter to relieve the mounting tension between priest and nun.
All four characters in "DOUBT," who also include Sister James, played by Lisa Joyce, and Mrs. Muller, mother of the eighth-grader at the center of Sister Aloysius' concerns, portrayed by Caroline Stefanie Clay, move through dramatic, painful transitions during the performance.
The standing ovation given the cast by a rapt audience on opening night March 13 was well-deserved.
Caryle Murphy is a former Washington Post reporter who covered religion.
By Caryle Murphy |
March 15, 2007; 12:56 PM ET
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Well put Bill, yes, let's look at Mother Theresa--wonderful person, worked very hard to help the poor--also catholic, preached that birth control was a sin against god, condoms were vile things promoting promiscuity, all this led to the spread of the HIV/Aids virus even more as well as perpetuating the extreme poverty level of most women in these undeveloped countries. praise god from whom all blessings flow: take a look at the death rates for women and children in india and africa and let's talk about why the u.s.a. is not funding any organization that promotes the use of condoms, about the religious right that continues to not care about these people, who only care about spreading their own religious agenda.......let's keep these people uneducated, impoverished and dying from infectious diseases that we can treat...all in the name of religion...
Posted by: anne greene | March 24, 2007 1:12 AM
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Very well put Victoria!
Look at the life of Mother Theresa, she went through the long dark night of the soul where she did doubt, but her conviction became solid.
To doubt is natural, but as John Crossan shows it can become cynicism, which may yet turn into unbelief.
Posted by: Bill L | March 18, 2007 8:46 AM
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doubt has its place- but there is a difference between doubt and skepticism- skepticism challenges us to thoroughly investigate our beliefs- and our own souls and how the two metabolize in us- what they produce- for me that skepticism has always led me back to faith-
the problem with non-spiritual people imposing what they imagine to be a spiritual reality is this-
they dont take into account the most extraordinary and ever changing conditions of life and gods intervening effect on it-
there are an incredible amount of small choices we make each day- as subtle as looking away when we encounter an unappealing looking or needy human on the horizon-
if you are actively seeking to be a servant of god- and humanity- in your faith- you consciously look for opportunities to do good and kind acts-
when that person appears on the horizon you are ready with a plan-
if youre preoccupied with your own doubts- youre looking for some 'proof' some validation that never occurs because youre looking for some good on the horizon to benefit or confirm you- so you miss the human dramas unfolding around you- or only see the misery that helps you confirm your own ego and absence of god in your life-
the reason i say this is the disturbing and strange statement of the playwright-
evaporates before his eyes, he's on the verge of growth.
"Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite-it is a passionate exercise," he added. "We've got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. That's the silence under the chatter of our time."
Conviction really requires much greater courage than doubt- doubt itself is the resting place- conviction is an active exercise in consciously with awareness seeking to find god in the people around us- the harmonies of life- and our own responsibility in being a part of that harmony-
doubt relieves oneself of that responsibility-
the doubt once reconciled to either belief or non-belief-(because a perpetual state of doubt ceases to have any meaning and becomes mere cynicism-which is the easiest way to operate of all) either strikes through to the very hard to reach core of that silence- that fleeting and elusive silence- while the doubt remains embroiled in the chatter-
Posted by: victoria | March 16, 2007 1:50 PM
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Just to clear up any "doubts" - the photo accompanying the essay is of the actress Cherry Jones, who portrays Sister Aloysius in the play.
It is not Caryle Murphy, writer of the essay.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first time "On Faith" has not included a photo of the essayist.
Posted by: E favorite | March 16, 2007 1:34 PM
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It would be great if John Dominic Crossan could comment on this parable play, since his scholarly research has focused on the parables of and about Jesus.
Posted by: ALM | March 16, 2007 12:23 PM
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