Photos by Elliot deBruyn
Old and new schools of religious ideology intersect with explosive allegations of sexual abuse in Urban Aphrodite’s adaptation of Doubt, A Parable.
Written by Academy Award-winner John Patrick Shanley in the wake of the 2002 prosecution of five Boston area Roman Catholic priests, the show captured both the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Drama.
Set at a Bronx catholic school in 1964, the conservative Sister Aloysius suspects charismatic Father Flynn of molesting altar boy Donald Muller, who is also the school’s first African-American student.
The two are natural foils. Sister Aloysius immediately conjures images of the stern old nun while Father Flynn reflects the hip modernizing efforts that changed the course of Catholicism with the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s.
Caught in the middle is Sister James, a young nun who must follow Sister Aloysius’ dogged pursuit, but shares Father Flynn’s religious philosophy.
“I thought it would be really interesting to do something about Catholicism and education in China because it’s something that a lot of people aren’t familiar with,”says show director and Urban Aphrodite founder Ann James, who co-stars in a short but pivotal scene as Muller’s mother.
During its initial off-Broadway production, Doubt was performed as a single act with the second act taking place in the conversations between audience members about its conclusion.
“There’s plenty of information within the play for the audience to make their own decisions or have their own doubts,” says James, who admits the cast have diverging opinions of whether he did it.
What is certain is the show’s reputation as an actor’s showcase. The entire cast of Shanley’s 2008 film adaptation (Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis and the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman) received Academy Award nominations for acting.
Big shoes to fill, but James is confident in her cast. She praises Ellen Fryer, an educator at Shanghai American School, as “the warmest person ever, but when she gets her Sister Aloysius on, she’s really kind of scary.”
Fryer will make her Shanghai stage debut alongside another newcomer, Sean Coyle, who was last seen in the ring at White Collar Boxing’s Brawl on the Bund, “the perfect experience for a character constantly on the defensive.”
The cast is rounded out by Cecilia Garcia as Sister James, showing off her dramatic side after co-starring in last winter’s musical comedies, Holiday Hitch and Rock On! Halloween.
// Mar 13-23, 8pm, RMB200-220. Sasha’s, 3/F, 11 Dongping Lu, by Hengshan Lu 东平路11号3楼, 近衡山路 (187 2152 8625, tickets@urbanaphrodite.nl)
********WIN!********
We have a pair of tickets to Doubt to give away. Simply answer the following:
John Patrick Shanley won an Oscar for his script for what 1987 film starring a 1960s pop star?
Answers with the subject ‘Doubt’ to win@urbanatomy.com by Mar 10.
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