Live Theatre Review: Doubt

By Citizen Correspondent Robert Waldman

Date Posted: 09/20/08

Reader Rating:

Controversy is the lifeblood of the arts. Taboo subjects create stirs no matter what medium they appear in. Trust the Arts Club Theatre to usher in the new season, its 45th, with a monumental drama. Sure to create ripples of unbridled enthusiasm and hope is Doubt, a searing look at some pretty devastating potential indiscretions now causing quite the buzz at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on Granville. And, as Arts Club creative director Bill Millerd informs us, this is the 10th anniversary of the Stanley’s opening as a live theatre venue, a fine continuation of the classic lines of this once majestic movie theatre.

Set in 1964, the year after the Kennedy Assassination, this show is perfect not only for that era but for modern times. Intolerance is the key element in this story that delves deep into the lives of four religious people. Trouble begins when rumours start to fly at a traditional Catholic school stateside. Led by the mercurial Sister Aloysius, this school is in a state of flux. Apparently the more modern thinking Father Flynn may have strayed a bit too far off the straight and narrow course, at least in the principal’s mind. You see Sister Aloysius runs the school like a prison matron and when she senses inappropriate behaviour she is out for blood and ready for the kill.

Not so fast, theologians. You see our Father Flynn won’t have any of this and decides to resist the charges leveled against him by this power mad vixen. Caught in between these opposable forces, whose positions seem rather intractable, is history teaching Sister James. Even parent of the day Mrs. Muller gets in her two bits as the charges and countercharges fly fast and furious in this spellbinding 90 minute revelation that goes full tilt with no intermission.

Forceful acting by each of the characters makes Doubt a phenomenal drama that pinpoints the dangers of gossip and half-truths. Sheer power emanates from both Gabrielle Rose, as the domineering Sister Aloysius and Jonathon Young, who gives as good as he gets as the singled out Father.