The Play Podcast - SoundSage

Monica Dolan and Sam Spruell
in Doubt at Chichester Festival Theatre 2022

041 – Doubt – A Parable, by John Patrick Shanley

The setting is a Catholic school in the Bronx, New York. It is 1964, a time of explosive social change that is challenging the established church. Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the principle of St Nicholas school is a no-nonsense, disciplinarian of the old school, dedicated to her duties to teach and protect the children, and obedient to her faith and the church. But she has doubts. Not about her faith or her views of the world, but about the school pastor, Father Flynn, and his relationships with the boys in the school, or more specifically with one boy: 12-year-old Donald Muller, who has only recently arrived at St Nicholas and happens to be the first and only black child in the school. Sister Aloysius is determined to air her doubts and pursues a sequence of enquiries that rocks the school community as well as her own certainties.

This is John Patrick Shanley’s disturbing and moving play, Doubt, which in the precise psychological orchestration of the relationships between its principal characters challenges us all to question our certainties. The play was first produced off-Broadway in New York in November 2004, before transferring to Broadway in March 2005. It won the Tony Award for Best Play, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama that year, and was made into a film in 2008 written and directed by the play’s author and starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis. As we record this episode it is being revived at the Chichester Festival Theatre with Monica Dolan, Sam Spruell, Jessica Rhodes and Rebecca Scroggs delivering stunning performances.

I am delighted to be joined by Monica Dolan, who shares her insights from playing Sister Aloysius in the Chichester production.

Monica Dolan

Monica Dolan is an Olivier and Bafta award-winning actor, whose work spans television, film and stage. She won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in the 2019 West End production of All About Eve, a Bafta Award for her unforgettable performance as Rosemary West in Appropriate Adult on ITV in 2011, and a Bafta nomination for Best Supporting Actress in A Very English Scandal alongside Hugh Grant.

Her recent work in theatre includes Doubt at the Chichester Festival Theatre, The Shrine for the Talking Heads Series at The Bridge, and Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’ critically acclaimed Appropriate and The Same Deep Water as Me, both at the Donmar Warehouse. Television highlights include Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, Black Mirror, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Casual Vacancy and W1A. Recent feature films include Days of the Bagnold Summer, The Dig, Rialto, Official Secrets , Eye in the Sky, Pride and The Falling. Monica also wrote and starred in her own play The Beasts,* which transferred to the Bush Theatre in London after an award-winning run at the Edinburgh Festival.

The Texts

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We have footnotes for this episode …

The Footnotes to our episode on Doubt include observations on the cat and mouse duel between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn, and the journey for Sister James from innocence to doubt and confusion.

Take me there!

Suggest a play

We’re always open to suggestions about plays to talk about, so if you’d like us to discuss a favourite of yours, please email us at plays@theplaypodcast.com. Let us know why you think we should cover it, and if you know anyone who’d be excited and qualified to talk about it with us (even yourself if modesty permits!).

Plays suggested for discussion by our Guests* Any play by Caryl Churchill – suggested by Nick Hern, our guest in Episode 2 - see Episode 30! More to follow.... * Jerusalem by Jez Buttwerworth, suggested by John Mitchinson, our guest in episode 20 * Cyprus Avenue by David Ireland - suggested by Matt McFrederick, our guest in Episode 3 * A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, suggested by Stephen Marino, our guest in episode 13 * Far Away by Caryl Churchill – suggested by Dan Rebellato, our guest in Episode 1 * The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan - suggested by Dan Rebellato, our guest on Episode 1 * All My Sons by Arthur Miller – suggested by Neil Docking, our guest in episode 4 * Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, suggested by Andy Miller, our guest in episode 20 * ear for eye by debbie tucker green - suggested by Mark Taylor-Batty, our guest in episode 6 * Mr Burns by Anne Washburn - suggested by George Spender, our guest in episode 7 * Rockets and Blue Lights by Winsome Pinnock - suggested by Dan Rebellato, our guest in episode 8 - see Episode 14! * Our Lady of Kibeho by Katori Hall - suggested by James Dacre, our guest in episode 37 * Misty by Arinze Kene, suggested by Winsome Pinnock, our guest in episode 14 * Art by Yasmina Reza, suggested by Michael Frayn, our guest in episode 18 * Downstate by Bruce Norris - suggested by Joe Penhall, our guest in episode 37 * Faith, Hope and Charity by Alexander Zeldin - suggested by George Turvey, our guest in episode 22 * Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads by Roy Williams - suggested by Nadine Holdsworth, our guest in episode 29 * On Blueberry Hill by Sebastian Barry - suggested by Nicholas Rowe, our guest in episode 10 * Hang by debbie tucker green - suggested by Elaine Aston, our guest in episode 30 * Closer by Patrick Marber, suggested by Lucy Bailey, our guest in episode 16 * Things I Know to be True by Andrew Bovell - suggested by Henry Filloux-Bennett, our guest in episode 9 * Sucker Punch by Roy Williams - suggested by Alan Brodie, our guest in episode 27 * The White Guard (aka The Day of the Turbins) by Mikhail Bulgakov, suggested by Michael Frayn, our guest in episode 18 * Disappeared by Phyllis Nagy, suggested by Lucy Kirkwood, our guest in episode 19 * The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez - suggested by Henry Filloux-Bennett, our guest in episode 9 * The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer - suggested by Patrick Marber, our guest in episode 33 * Sunday in the Park with George - by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim - suggested by Matt Beresford, our guest in episode 34 * Rafts and Dreams by Robert Holman - suggested by Simon Stephens, our guest in episode 40 * Handbagged by Moira Buffini - suggested by Matt Beresford, our guest in episode 35 * Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin - suggested by Greg Hersov, our guest in episode 36 * Shook by Samuel Bailey - recommended by James Graham, our guest in episode 39 - see episode 22! * Antigone by Jean Anouilh - suggested by Emma Smith, our guest in episode 38 * Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins - suggested by Monica Dolan, our guest in episode 41 * The Wexford Trilogy by Billy Roche - suggested by Conor McPherson, our guest in episode 28 * Shook by Samuel Bailey - suggested by Nick Hern, our guest in episode 2 - See episode 22! * Good by C.P. Taylor - suggested by Alan Brodie, our guest in episode 27 * Gas by Georg Kaiser - suggested by Justin Greene, our guest in episode 26 * The Birds by Aristophanes - suggested by Edith Hall, our guest in episode 25 * The Seven Streams of the River Ota by Robert Lepage - suggested by Adam James, our guest in episode 24 * The Effect by Lucy Prebble - suggested by Nina Raine, our guest in episode 24 * The Mikvah Project by Josh Azouz - suggested by Samuel Bailey, our guest in episode 22 * Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill - suggested by John Tiffany, our guest in episode 21 * The Blind by Maurice Maeterlinck - suggested by Tim McMullan, our guest in episode 5 * The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd, suggested by Emma Smith, our guest in episode 17. * The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen, suggested by Christopher Hampton, our guest in episode 15 * A View From the Bridge by Arthur Miller, suggested by Stephen Marino, our guest in episode 13 * Across Oka by Robert Holman, suggested by David Eldridge, our guest in episode 11. * Lungs by Duncan Macmillan - suggested by Victoria Hamilton, our guest in episode 10 - see episode 7! * Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris -suggested by Monica Dolan, our guest in episode 41 Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.