John Patrick Shanley's Doubt provided a memorable conclusion to several happy years of Heller Theatre productions. If I understand correctly, Heller will be moving to a new location, called Henthorne, within the next few months, and I look forward to seeing those new facilities.
Heller Theatre productions deserve a larger space, and I hope the Henthorne will provide them that. Doubt, on the other hand, benefitted from the closed space. It takes place, after all, within the cloistered halls of a Catholic school. Imagine how such a text would play on a larger stage, in a vast hall. There would be too much air between the actors and the audience. Heller Theatre was an intimate space fit for intimate plays, and I think I will miss that intimacy.
There are moments in Scarberry's production that did not ring true for me. My least favorite was the initial confrontation between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn. Gavin as Flynn violated the sanctity of the Sister's office by sitting in her chair, putting his feet on her desk, and flashing personal habits which she found repulsive. It seemed as though he was making her uncomfortable intentionally, as though he were performing these actions as a power play.
Though Gavin committed himself to the power play, and though Sanders and Blocker both responded to the shift in relacoms appropriately and believably, I didn't understand why Father Flynn would do such things. Aloysius hadn't accused him of anything by that point, and though it's obvious that the Father and the Sister would have butted heads many times due to their opposing philosophies, I'm not sure the antipathy had reached such a level that Flynn would have encroached upon her private space and offended her sensibilities so brazenly. Simply put, the blocking was very interesting and imaginative, but seemed unsupported by the text itself. The blocking made blatant what the text stated subtly: the power struggle between these two religious figures coming to a head.
This moment was very odd for me, because little else in the production unfolded so inorganically. I found a few of the crosses unmotivated, some of the blocking a bit too geometric and symmetrical, but truthfully this was a play in which actions and words flowed from an honest and real source. I think I would have liked to have seen Sister Aloysius' doubts -- or rather, to have seen her experience and then suppress those doubts, revealing them only in full force at the very end of the play. This would have added just that extra touch of depth to her strong and confident performance.
The climactic argument between the Sister and the Father was dramatic without becoming maudlin, and made me curious as to why Doubt had not been submitted to the TATE committee. I think this play would have made a very strong showing at the competition, but I'm sure Scarberry has an ace up her sleeve later this season. Still, I would have loved to've seen these actors' performances recognized more formally somehow. I loved Blocker in Recent Tragic Events, and I loved her in this too. I don't believe I've seen Sonya Wallace yet on the Tulsa stage, which is a shame because she was really something in this production as Mrs. Muller. (When she crossed to kneel in front of the Sister, my heart broke.)
On a more personal note (which I really should be doing more of, since I no longer have to put on the pretense of professional prose), I loved the Radiohead scoring the top of each scene, especially "I Might Be Wrong." It's one of my favorite songs, and I love the idea of using it to expand the theme of doubt in this play. I liked how the music changed the texture of the show, too. Think about how traditional chamber music, or Gregorian chant, or something equally and ephemerally "religious," would have changed the show. It would have distanced us from it, I think. Stereotyped it. I think this choice gave us a new point of access into the text.
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