Moral uncertainty drives drama of ‘Doubt: A Parable’

"Where's your compassion?"

-- Father Flynn

"Nowhere you can get at it."

-- Sister Aloysius

Rewind to 2005, the curtain dropping on a performance of the moral/intellectual brawl between an accused priest and an accusatory nun. This theatergoer exits Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre irritated, bereft of resolution.

Until understanding the playwright's point: Uncertainty opens the door to learning. Certainty slams it shut.

Explain that to a 2010 America of political flamethrowers, religious absolutists and sneering extremists for whom a sliver of doubt over any issue is the worst devil -- a rejection of dogma.

And for whom a local version of "Doubt: A Parable" could stimulate the gray matter necessary to pry open black-and-white minds.

"Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty," says Australian actor Darren Weller, onstage as Father Flynn on a recent rehearsal night, addressing congregants -- actually empty Las Vegas Little Theatre seats this night, save for a director and stage manager.

Voice clear and passionate -- but still with hints of the Aussie outback on its way to the Bronx-ese it should be by Friday's opening -- Weller kicks off a run-through of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer winner, later a 2008 Meryl Streep/Philip Seymour Hoffman film.

Set at a Bronx church school in 1964, "Doubt" ignites from the tense standoff between Flynn and the principal, Sister Aloysius, who learns from younger Sister James (Penni Mendez) that an altar boy, their first black student, returned from a meeting with Flynn smelling of alcohol and "acting strangely."

Suspecting sexual misconduct, she confronts the priest -- as progressive and community-minded as she is rigid and dogmatic -- who protests that he was merely disciplining the boy for drinking altar wine, the private meeting sparing him from harsher punishment. Later, Aloysius explains her accusations to the boy's mother (Kawanda Smith), who surprisingly rejects the nun's assertions.

"You need to try on your nun," director Walter Niejadlik tells Valerie Carpenter Bernstein, aka Aloysius, referring to the outfit and black bonnet she dons in character. Returning, Bernstein burrows into the persona of the sister, who asserts that "Frosty the Snowman espouses a pagan belief in magic." Yet the actress infuses her with the subtle humanity of a woman who has lived life, taking vows after losing her husband in World War II. And perhaps burying pain beneath the doctrines of the church.

"People think she has to be a bitch. That was one thing we stayed away from because nuns are an easy target," Niejadlik says before rehearsal. "Her purpose is the good of this child and not just being on a witch hunt."

Did the priest do the deed? No one knows. Except the actor. "To play the part, I need to make a choice, I need to know what happened," Weller says offstage, clutching the basketball he bounces onstage, coaching his unseen boys' team between classes and sermons.

"I've played it in rehearsal with different ideas as to what he has or hasn't done. You don't want to condemn him and have it be over at the beginning, or make him so likable there's no possibility of him having done anything. Even if he hasn't, but had a thought and didn't act on it, there's reason to feel guilty."

His actress/adversary? "I asked him not to tell me," Bernstein says of her co-star's choice. "It is kind of dangerous -- what is he reacting to off of her threats? It does give it added juice."

Could headlines -- the preponderance of pedophile priest cases, the pope's apologies -- undermine the playwright's central "doubt," with an audience already primed to believe he's an abuser? "With all of it on the news, I would expect that to happen," Bernstein says. "But when we start peeling back the layers, it's going to be a seesaw. He did. He didn't. A push-me-pull reaction."

Yet doubt over "Doubt" is not just dramatic and thematic for the longtime local theater. "When I read it, I wanted to do it," Niejadlik says. "And if there was a movie, that can help with the draw. But dramas have been, for us, a hard sell. What I hear in the lobby after is they'll love a show, but they feel there's enough tragedy and strife in the world and, 'Give us more comedies.' But this really is a perfect-sized play for our space."

Onstage, a set of religious elements -- Virgin Mary statue, pulpit, church courtyard, cathedral arches, office where the square-off plays out -- awaits the answer of whether local audiences will invest in this moral/intellectual challenge.

"I wouldn't mind being wrong," Sister Aloysius says. "But I doubt I am."

That's midplay. By its denouement? Or lack of one? As theatergoers exit Las Vegas Little Theatre, irritation should give way to understanding: "Doubt: A Parable" isn't about yes, no and simplicity. It's about perhaps, maybe and complexity. Acknowledging gray when we prefer black and white.

Don't doubt that.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@review journal.com or 702-383-0256.