THEATER: “Doubt” deserves longer discussion

  One of the benefits about blogging is  that space is not so sacred. In most reviews, I have to move quickly to get  to all the points I want to make about a play, and even then, I usually have to leave a few out, and be very brief in my reasonings. "Doubt," which plays throughout the weekend at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre's Judy Bayley Theatre, is worth talking about some more. In my review (http://www.lvrj.com/living/18721139.html), I tried to convince the reader that the set-in-1964-New York drama, well-directed by Michael Lugering, was worth seeing. Maybe here, we can enter into a deeper-layered discussion.
  First, there's that script. Some feel it's overrated, but for me, there's too much that hits home. There's a moment (WARNING: SPOILERS!!) when the priest asks the nun why she is so sure that he has acted improperly with a 12-year-old boy. And she answers: "On the first day of the school year, I saw you touch (the boy's) wrist. And I saw him pull away."
  I think that's brilliant. Anyone who has ever been an altar boy (as I was, in 1964, in New York, at age 12) knows that for a priest to touch a boy's wrist or to hug him would be an honor — something the boy would be proud of. For a nun to observe that a Catholic male student pulls away from a hug by a priest would easily suggest in real life that something may be wrong. What an incredibly tiny and brilliant detail for playwright John Patrick Shanley to have observed.
  Robert Broadfoot, who designed the set, creates a very authentic Catholic atmosphere that had me reliving those nightmares of getting beat up by the nuns. (I still hear the daily scream that was a prelude to my punishments: "Mr. Del Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllleeeeeeeee!")
  I don't know how I feel about the lead performance of Anne DeSalvo by the seemingly tough-as-nails nun, Sister Aloysius Beauvier. She plays tough all right, but I'm not sure we can believe the change we see in her in the final scene. You could say she was faking the tough-as-nails part of her character all through the play, but I would argue we need to see some hint of that final breakdown somewhere earlier.
  "Doubt" was a riveting experience for me; so much so that I want to argue back with the cast, crew and audience. Reviews can sound as if the critic thinks he knows it all. With so little space, there's little room for hesitation. Maybe now on the blogs we make reviews the springboard for what we really should be doing — discussing.