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Doubt (movie tie-in edition) | 
 enlarge | Author: John Patrick Shanley
Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
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Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 9223
Media: Paperback
Pages: 64
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.3
ISBN: 1559363479
Dewey Decimal Number: 812
EAN: 9781559363471
ASIN: 1559363479
Publication Date: December 1, 2008
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Product Description
Now a major motion picture! Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley from his Pulitzer Prize–winning play. “The best new play of the season. That rarity of rarities, an issue-driven play that is unpreachy, thought-provoking, and so full of high drama that the audience with which I saw it gasped out loud a half-dozen times at its startling twists and turns. Mr. Shanley deserves the highest possible praise: he doesn’t try to talk you into doing anything but thinking-hard-about the gnarly complexity of human behavior.”?Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal “A breathtaking work of immense proportion. Positively brilliant.”?Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly “#1 show of the year. How splendid it feels to be trusted with such passionate, exquisite ambiguity unlike anything we have seen from this prolific playwright so far. In just ninety fast-moving minutes, Shanley creates four blazingly individual people. Doubt is a lean, potent drama . . . passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing.”?Linda Winer, Newsday John Patrick Shanley is the author of numerous plays, including Danny in the Deep Blue Sea, Dirty Story, Four Dogs and a Bone, Psychopathia, Sexualis, Sailor’s Song, Savage in Limbo, and Where’s My Money? He has written extensively for TV and film, and his credits include the teleplay for Live from Baghdad and screenplays for Congo; Alive; Five Corners; Joe Versus the Volcano, which he also directed; and Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for best original screenplay.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 There are some things you just know..... April 6, 2005
Matt C. (New York)
51 out of 51 found this review helpful
There's something about Father Flynn (Brian O'Byrne) that doesn't sit right with Sister Aloysius (Cherry Jones). The year is 1964. The shadow of the Kennedy assassination hangs in the air like a thin fog, integration has begun to spread throughout the country, and, at a Catholic grammar school in the Bronx, the traditions Aloysius relies upon are slipping away. No person represents this progression of time and society more than Flynn. He personalizes his sermons, takes three sugars in his tea, and treats the students with a familiarity that Sister Aloysius believes can only lead to disrespect. However, what makes Aloysius most uneasy about Flynn is the relationship between him and the school's first African-American student. It's a relationship she believes has gone too far. Though she has little more than her gut to go on, Aloysius, with the ambivalent assistance of a young, idealistic fellow sister, goes about a private investigation to correct the wrong she knows has occurred.
The brilliance of Doubt (John Patrick Shanley's funny, suspenseful and finally devastating play) is its combination of Aloysius's forward drive with Flynn's compassionate intellect. Sister Aloysius could have been painted as a fire-and-brimstone kook, but Shanley allows us to see the steel rod of principle that supports Aloysius's stern demeanor and almost maddening certainty. Similarly, Father Flynn stands in for the forward-thinking, tender man of the cloth many long for in the wake of the sex scandal's of the Catholic Church. Yet there is also a subtle manipulation to Flynn's innocuous quirks that draws us in. We like Flynn while, like Aloysius, instinctively analyze his every word and action, for clues to the truth of the matter at hand.
Clocking in at around an hour-and-a-half, Doubt is a marvel of compact, streamlined narrative. There isn't a superfluous action or misplaced word, and the characters speak with the no-nonsense cadences of individuals who actually grew up and around the streetlights and subways of the Bronx. Shanley's depth of character and comprehension of narrative is made all the more stunning by his play's brevity. He is certainly assisted by director Doug Hughes's elegant staging and two towering performances by O'Byrne and especially Jones. If one can see this play live (currently at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York), I highly recommend it. It was one of the most powerful theater-goeing experiences I've ever been privileged to attend.
Even if you can't, however, the piercing complexity of Shanley's words are worth every cent. We never do find out the truth behind Flynn's relationship with the young boy, although there is evidence for and against that can lead a reader to induce what they like. Shanley's ultimate vision is of the elusiveness and impossibility of the truth, and the price of certainty. And all the while, he never forgets the terse mystery and fascinating character study at the play's heart. It's a tribute to Doubt's ingenious construction and peerless insight that the play's final moments are its most revealing. A lie is uncovered, a resolution is decided upon, and the battered heart of a seemingly inconquerable woman is layed bare with a revealing, haunting final line.
In an age of theatrical uncertainty, the astonishing Doubt is beyond reproach.
"Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty." October 14, 2005
Mary Whipple (New England)
40 out of 41 found this review helpful
Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Doubt is, by turns, funny, shocking, stimulating, and ultimately, wise. Capturing the conflicts within St. Nicholas Church and its school in the Bronx in 1964, the play revolves around Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a rigidly doctrinaire school principal in her fifties who strictly controls both the staff and her students. A late entrant into the religious life, Sister Aloysius was married to a man killed during World War II, and the school has become her life. Sister James, a young teacher in her twenties, is temperamentally her opposite, a young woman who loves her students and is warm and generous towards them.
When Sister Aloysius concludes that Donald Muller, the first black student at the school, is getting too much attention from Father Brendan Flynn, she sets the play's central conflict in motion. Though she has no evidence that anything untoward has occurred, she proceeds as if Donald has been sexually abused by the priest, never doubting her conclusions. Sister James doubts Sister Aloysius and has faith in the priest.
The issue becomes more complex when both Sister Aloysius and Fr. Flynn approach the same church hierarchy--she to ask for an investigation and he to protect his reputation. Questions of doubt multiply, both for the characters and for the audience: Does something called "the truth" exist? How much should one accept on faith? When is an issue so important that one must put aside doubts and act? When do one's doubts lead to growth?
Set during a time when sexual abuse was not receiving the attention it has received in recent years, the play shows the damage which can occur when someone believes too easily in a specific "truth," whether that be the "truth" as defined by a prevailing culture, such as the church, or the kind of "truth" which one seeks in a courtroom. As the author points out in his preface, "We've got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word."
The play's four characters interact in a series of powerful and often moving scenes in which the "theatrics" are deliberately restrained. Shanley avoids easy answers to the mystery at the heart of this play, forcing the audience to think about the action as it unfolds, expanding the audience's vision, and showing that "It is Doubt that changes things." At the end of the play, the audience will be full of doubts about the central conflict, and that, according to Shanley, is good. n Mary Whipple
Perfectly constructed examination of doubt June 2, 2005
news4fan (Washington, DC area)
32 out of 33 found this review helpful
John Patrick Shanley has written a short, but superb play. Not one word is unnecessary. Power seems to just evaporate from the pages and I would love to see it on stage. Shanley writes like Tennessee Williams, suspenseful and yet still full of meaning.
Two nuns suspect a priest of foul play with the Catholic school's first black student. One nun continues to persecute the priest further, seemingly certain of his guilt, but later we learn she was never really very certain. Another nun is torn between the seemingly harsh nun and seemingly kind priest. We also see the priest certain of his position and his superior who would never doubt the priest's merits. The boy's mother also appears. The play may not seem that dramatic, but it is and not only does it deal with the characters' doubt it also deals with our own up through the very last page.
This play provokes great thought about certainty, whether it exists, and what it does for us.
So good it is destined to be a classic of dramatic arts. May 6, 2006
C. B Collins Jr. (Atlanta, GA United States)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
John Patrick Shanley's script for the play Doubt is a masterpiece. It is basically about "truth" as a social construct with a broad range of consequences depending on how the construct is framed and accepted. Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the Catholic school principal, is convinced that she has discovered a truth about Father Brendan Flynn, a robust likable assertive priest.
A great strength of this script is that Shanley leaves the mystery somewhat unresolved. Though some reviewers have concluded that Father Flynn did have some sexual involvement with the Black student, Donald Muller, there is still much room for doubt since Father Muller could have been transferred to another parrish to avoid Sister Aloysius' continued assault on his reputation and his peace of mind.
The script wisely begins with the central theme of the play, as given in a sermon by Father Flynn. He states: "What do you do when you are not sure?" The play cascades from this point with Sister Aloysius convinced of Father Flynn's guilt and Sister James wracked with moral uncertainty as to what is true or not true and what are the moral consequences for each decision.
The play is masterfully written, much like a detective story, in which each clue that propels you toward one solution is then counter-poised with another clue drawing you in the opposite direction and conclusion. The reader may suspend judgement throughout the play, absorbing the subtle clues that propel this clash of characters forward; or the reader may take sides, since Father Flynn is a likeable, robust, assertive, clever, strong, person who is contrasted with the cold rock strength and certainty of Sister Aloysius, who is never presented as especially warm or compassionate yet her actions speak to great compassion if indeed she fully believes she is interrupting the sexual predatory actions of Father Flynn.
The play's strengths are expanded when we hear from Donald Muller's mother who tells us her son is an effiminate child who was been repeatedly beaten in public schools as well as by his father for his effiminate behaviors. In Catholic school, his mother hoped he would be protected. The wise Mrs. Muller realizes that her son's effiminate behavior is strongly correlated with same-sex eroticism when she tells Sister Aloysius 'my son is that way'. Thus this wise mother sees the possible affectionate attentions of this white priest toward her son as far more desirable than the hostility he experiences from young males in public school or from his own father. The character of Mrs. Muller is unexpected, and throws a complete different light onto the actions of the play. Sister Aloysius thought she had found a partner and then found more than for which she had bargained.
I must say, Father Muller's opening sermon, the sermon about doubt which originally sets Sister Aloysius upon his trail, is wonderful. The tale is of a sailor who experiences a terrible ship wreck at sea, and amid the confusion climbs aboard a raft and is the only man saved in the wreck. He sets his course based on the stars since he has learned to navigate from the stars. Yet for the next 28 days the clouds cover the sky every night and he is uncertain whether he remains on course or whether he is doomed. Father Flynn equates this to spiritual/religious revelation/inspiration followed by years of doubt. Yet the questioning and the seeking create a bond with truth and thus doubt becomes as strong a spiritual tool as certainty.
With not a word out of place, this play is a modern masterpiece bound to be a classic.
Gripping and thought-provoking: ripped from the headlines. June 11, 2005
Christian Engler (Woburn, Massachusetts)
13 out of 17 found this review helpful
Sometimes a media blitzkrieg on a particular issue, in this case, the unraveling clergy sex scandal within the Catholic Church, can be so over dominant to the extreme that the genuine horror of its totality and those directly and indirectly affected, can regrettably seem like an unreality, a movie scene where human detachment is at its strongest. Where the media oftentimes fails to evoke a mood of empathy and personal involvement to what they are reporting--as they are covering facts--art, particulary dramtic art of the theatre, can bring into sharper focus the finer points of a tragedy or evil that those who are especially hardened and jaded by cynicism or total desensitization can not fully bring to the forefront, no matter how hard they try. And where journalists have sometimes failed in the telling of the humanness of the clergy sex scandal-and I specifically mean the victims-John Patrick Shanley has unundoubtedly succeeded, for Doubt, though very short, is quite powerful in its telling and the message it conveys: complete blind submissiveness and ignoring gut instincts--no matter how far fetched--is never a good thing, irrelevant if one is in a church environment or not. Doubt, in general, is a very healthy and normal thing to have, especially in this day and age. Unfortunately, it took the church sex scandal to starkly illustrate that point. In Doubt, the setting is a Catholic church in New York, specifically the Bronx, the time frame being the early to mid sixties. The characters are Father Brendan Flynn (the accused), Sister Aloysius Beauvier (the accuser), Sister James (the witness) and Mrs. Muller (the victim's mother). Sister James, an idealistic nun of the order of the Sisters of Charity, loves history and the teaching of it to students, especially receptive ones. Sister Aloysius has lived life, seen much and knows when to be sceptical. Though she is older and wiser, she is faith filled and dogmatically principled to even the most minute detail of Catholic thology:
Sister James: Oh, but everyone loves the Christmas pagent.
Sister Aloysius: I don't love it. Frankly it offends me. Last year the girl playing Our Lady was wearing lipstick. I was waiting in the wings for that little jade.
And then there is Father Brendan Flynn, rather happy-go-lucky with an initial attitude of dismissive cordiality, the one on 'easy street' who commands respect because of the Roman collar around his neck or so he has firmly convinced himself. However, when Sister James bears witness to an event and the aftereffects upon one of her students--Donald Muller--she brings the matter to Sister Aloysius, who despite concrete proof, knows full well what is going on and conducts an investigation that, bit-by-bit, bears disturbing fruit. Though Sister James is desperate for excuses, Sister Aloysius is unyielding in her doubt, especially the pragmatic explainations offered by Father Flynn. What he has to say is not good enough, and she goes beyond the rigid hierarchal structure for the greater good:
Sister Aloysius: I did not speak to the pastor. I spoke to one of the nuns.
Flynn: You should've spoken to the pastor.
Sister Aloysius: I spoke to a nun.
Flynn: That's not the proper route for you to have taken, Sister! The Church is very clear. You're supposed to go through the pastor.
Sister Aloysius: Why? Do you have an understanding, you and he? Father Flynn, you have a history.
Doubt is a definite parable, because there is a mythical and supernatural aura to the Catholic Church, an aura that can occasionally get lost within itself--as history has clearly proven--and thereby spread, unintentionally, errors to a wider audience. But as in the case of Sister Aloysius, it took her intuition and pitbull doggedness to cut through the convoluted self-righteousness in order that goodness could prevail. What Doubt will hopefully do is restore some degree of dialogue and trust, because for every bad apple there is indeed a large abundance of good holy priests who yearn to serve with humility, respect, compassion and mercy.
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