Rubicon Theatre Company continues the 2009-2010 Season, "Defying Expectations," with DOUBT: A PARABLE by John Patrick Shanley.
Set in a Catholic Church school in the Bronx in the fall of 1964, DOUBT: A PARABLE is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama about Sister Aloysius, a rigid and conservative principal with exacting standards, who believes that in order for students to be properly prepared for the world, teachers must offer discipline over compassion. She suspects that a gregarious priest, Father Flynn, newly arrived to the parish, is too friendly with the students, and that he is paying too much attention to young Donald Muller, the first Negro student ever to be admitted to the school. Through conversation with an innocent, hopeful young nun (Sister James), Sister Aloysius becomes certain that Father Flynn has, or is capable of, an improper relationship with Donald; but she cannot prove her allegations. If she charges him, she will destroy his career, and perhaps her own. She further questions Sister James, as well as Donald's mother. The story leaves us with questions about what has - and should have - happened, who is right or wrong, and the nature of faith and love.
Says Rubicon Artistic Director James O'Neil, "DOUBT: A PARABLE is a thinking-person's play. It asks us to think about important moral dilemmas for which there are no easy answers. It is an intelligent, powerful, provocative piece that we know will stimulate spirited discussion and debate amongst our audience members."
Directed by Artistic Associate Jenny Sullivan, the play features a cast of returning Rubicon veterans, among them company member Joseph Fuqua (RTC's Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Hamlet), Robin Pearson Rose (All My Sons, Samuel Beckett's Happy Days), Chicago-based Lauren Patten (The Diary of Anne Frank, Fiddler on the Roof), and Collette Porteous (You Can't Take It With You).
DOUBT: A PARABLE opens this Saturday, January 30 at 7:00 p.m. at Rubicon's home at Laurel and Main in Ventura's Downtown Cultural District, 1006 E. Main Street, Ventura, CA 93001. Low-cost previews begin Wednesday, January 27 at 7:00 p.m. and continued Thursday, January 28 and Friday, January 29 at 8:00 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Wednesdays at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Thursdays at 8:00 p.m., Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (805) 667-2900 or go to www.rubicontheatre.org.
History of the Production
DOUBT opened on Broadway in 2005 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, directed by Doug Hughes. The original cast included Cherry Jones and Brian F. O'Byrne, who were followed by Eileen Atkins and Ron Eldard in 2006. The show ran in New York for 525 performances. DOUBT swept the 2005 awards ceremonies, winning four Tony Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Jones toured with the production, which won the 2007 Touring Broadway Award. The West Coast premiere with Linda Hunt took place at Pasadena Playhouse. The production has since played in more than 25 countries and has been directed by Nicolas Ken and Roman Polanski, among others.
The film version of DOUBT premiered in 2008 with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis. Shanley directed. DOUBT is also featured in "The Fourth Wall," a book of photographs by Amy Arbus for which Shanley wrote the forward.
The idea for the story of DOUBT was inspired by characters Shanley knew as a young man. "I went to a church in the Bronx," says Shanley, "in 1964."
