graphic & photo courtesy Rosebud Theatre
The audience will find themselves engrossed as the actors in Rosebud’s new play move them through the one-act play “Doubt: A Parable.”
The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play is set in The Bronx, New York, in the early 1960s, focusing on three main characters at a religious school.
Jeany Van Meltebeke plays Sister Aloysius, a no-nonsense, take charge woman who finds instilling fear of her in the students the most effective method for keeping them in line.
Heather Pattengale’s Sister James style is at odds with this - she wants to be seen as approachable to students, and tries to run her classes as such.
Father Flynn, played by Nathan Schmidt, comes across as affable, easy going and interested in the welfare of his students.
A question of Father Flynn’s conduct is raised during a conversation between Sisters Aloysius and James, and the play centers around what happens from there.
With the numerous reports published and broadcast of the sexual assault of children after the play’s opening in 2004, watching this play may seem a bit eerie at times, magnified while listening to some of Father Flynn’s arguments, and taking the audience through different emotions as they follow the interaction between the characters.
One of those emotions may be sadness, when Lennette Randall’s Mrs. Muller speaks about her son, and his treatment at home, with Sister Aloysius.
All of the actors portray very well the struggles of their characters in dealing with the information they receive and the choices they must make as a result, and perhaps leaving theatre patrons with more questions than answers at the play’s final scene.
“Doubt: A Parable” runs until October 25 at Rosebud Theatre.
