Doubt

Saturday night, Linda and I visted the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines to see a play we knew very little about but had heard highly praised. By the time we settled into our seats, we still knew little more than the name of the play and that a primary member of the cast had received a Tony award for her performance.

The play, Doubt, was interesting on many levels. The four characters we see are all unified in their objective but are often in strongly conflicting positions on how to achieve it.

"What do you do when you're not sure?" Father Flynn asks the audience in the opening line of this play, setting the stage for a story of suspicion and moral certainty.

Set in a northeastern Catholic school in the sixties, there are plenty of moral issues that come into play. The main issue has to do with a young nuns observation of a young black boy after visiting the Father. When she is coaxed to share her observations with Sister Aloysius, the principal of the school, wheels are set in motion that crescendo to the climactic confrontation and its resolution. According to the author, the play doesn't finish with the final scene; the nearly mandatory questions and conversation that follow finish the play.