Doubt, A Parable, is a 2004 play by John Patrick Shanley, that was originally staged off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club on November 23, 2004. This play is now to be performed in Gozo, at the Teatru Astra, Victoria, as part of the Festival Mediterranea 2014 and directed by Mario Tabone.

A Catholic grade school seem like a hermetically sealed world in 1964. That’s the case with St. Nicholas in the Bronx, ruled by the pathologically severe principal, Sister Aloysius, who keeps the students and nuns under her thumb and is engaged in an undeclared war with the new parish priest, Fr Flynn.

Their issues may seem to centre around the reforms of Vatican II, then still under way, with Fr Flynn as the progressive, but for the nun it’s more of a power struggle. The Pope’s infallibility seems, in her case, to have descended to the parish level.

An African-American student at St. Nicholas, Donald Muller, is encouraged by Fr Flynn in sports and appoints him as an altar boy. This is all power. Then Sister James notes that the priest summons the boy to the rectory alone. She decides this is improper behaviour, and informs Sister Aloysius, whose eyes narrow like a beast of prey. Father Flynn’s fate is sealed.

But ‘Doubt’ is not intended as a docudrama about possible sex abuse. The play written by John Patrick Shanley and winner of the Pulitzer award, is about the title word, doubt, in a world of certainty.

For Sister Aloysius, Fr Flynn is certainly guilty. That the priest seems innocent, that Sister James comes to believe she was mistaken in her suspicions, means nothing. Fr Flynn knows a breath of scandal would destroy his career. And that is the three-way standoff we see unfolding with precision and high tension.

Something else happens. The real world enters this sealed, parochial battlefield. Donald’s mother fears her son will be expelled from school. He has been accused of drinking the altar wine. She appeals directly to Sister Aloysius, to have mercy on him until he finishes his last year at school.

Doubt is the subject of the sermon Father Flynn opens the play with. What could you be sure of? The conflict between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn is the conflict between old and new, between status and change, between infallibility and uncertainty…..and the play leaves us doubting.

The cast includes Maria Schembri (Sister Aloysius), George Camilleri (Father Flynn), Julia Camilleri (Sister James) and Paula Harris Cassar as Mrs Muller. The costume designer is the Teatru Astra wardrobe master, George Farrugia.

Performances will take place on Saturday, the 22nd of November and Sunday, the 23rd of November, 2014 at 700pm.

Booking is available at the Teatru Astra Bar: 21550985 and info@mediterranea.com.mt

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