DOUBT, A Parable, has a new, expanded title since its Broadway run, but it's the same riveting drama that gathered a Pulitzer Prize and Best Play Tony Award as just plain Doubt. And the upcoming Human Race Theatre Company production will provide even more emotional intensity, thanks to the intimacy of the 219-seat Loft Theatre.
Doubt has, of course, been made into a much-acclaimed movie that garnered five Oscar nominations. But it is the stage version that cuts to the very guts of the battle for truth between Sister Aloysius, principal of a parochial school in the Bronx in 1964, and Father Flynn, the parish priest.
John Patrick Shanley's play has only four characters - all four of which led to Academy Award nominations for the movie performers - which allows Sister Aloysius' doubts about Father Flynn's behavior with a young male student, and the priest's responses, to be distilled down to their very essence.
"It's a glorious story" says Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Drama Chairman Richard Hess, who directs the Human Race production. "The script is tightly wound, almost like a good thriller at heart." Hess, whose last Loft production was I Am My Own Wife, sees the mutability of truth as the core of the play.
New York-based Wendy Barrie-Wilson has twice before portrayed Sister Aloysius, including in the European Premiere in Vienna. Barrie-Wilson's Broadway appearances have included Our Town, starring Paul Newman, and All My Sons, starring Richard Kiley.
Timothy Fannon, who plays Father Flynn, is also based in New York. His appearances there have included Blindness at 59E59 Theaters and The Beauty Queen of Leenane at Center Stage.
Sarah Ellen Stephens, who plays the mother of the boy in question, is a recent graduate of CCM and student of director Hess. She was in the national tour of Calculus: The Musical and appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream with The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.
Idealistic young nun Sister James is played by Human Race Resident Artist Jennifer Joplin, who recently moved back to Ohio from New York. Joplin's Loft appearances include Lenny in Crimes of the Heart, Catherine in Proof and Harper in Angels in America.
Mark Halpin, who worked with Hess on I Am My Own Wife, designed the set, Laine June Marr the costumes, Resident Artist John Rensel the lighting, and Rich Dionne the sound.
The Human Race Theatre production of DOUBT, A Parable will run at The Loft Theatre March 19 - April 5. Tickets are available by calling Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630 or toll-free at (888) 228-3630, at the Schuster Center box office, or via www.humanracetheatre.org
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