Review: Actor’s Express’ ‘Doubt’ is a relevant, fascinating look at complex topics

Since its opening in 2004 and its win of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable has been a stage staple for theater companies large and small. It has four characters, provides grand acting challenges for all the performers, requires minimal sets and deals with big themes. The script also defiantly leaves the audience with unanswered plot questions. A satisfying production of the play hinges almost entirely upon the actors and choices they make regarding their characters’ unknown internal lives. 

The production onstage at Actor’s Express through June 22 is very, very good. The performances, particularly Tess Malis Kincaid in the central and pivotal role of Sister Aloysius, are excellent. Director Freddie Ashley stages the show in a way that feels intensified, subtly sinister, slyly funny and claustrophobic. The script is designed to spark debate on complicated topics regarding race, religion, gender dynamics and child abuse. Doubt remains relevant, even decades after the 2003 revelations about the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal. 

Go see it. See what conclusions you come up with regarding its central mystery. The show remains fascinating.

Father Flynn (Justin Walker) is a popular priest at a Bronx parish in 1964, coaching basketball at the attached Catholic school presided over by Sister Aloysius (Kincaid), a cold, sharp disciplinarian who sees structure and rules as ways to keep children’s virtue protected.

Early in the play, she interviews the young, naive and optimistic Sister James (Sarah Velasco), a teacher overseeing an eighth grade class that includes Donald Muller, the school’s only Black student. Aloysius wishes James would be more firm and suspicious with the adolescents in general. Aloysius also believes Donald will become the target of some sort of trouble.

James later reports an incident where Donald was taken to the rectory by Flynn and behaved oddly upon his return. Upon hearing of this, she begins a campaign to find out exactly what went on between Donald and Flynn, certain that it was inappropriate. 

Aloysius even interviews Donald’s mother, played by an excellent Tiffany Denise Hobbs in a particularly intense and surprising single scene.

Flynn maintains his innocence but also refuses to answer any of Aloysius’ questions. She is a woman outside of his chain of command.

Nothing can be known for sure. Much of the script can be interpreted multiple ways, leaving nuances in the reading and line delivery. These actors know how closely the audience is watching them, leaning forward to decipher any hints or clues. It is a tightrope walk to maintain the unknowable parts of this story, and it makes for a very compelling show.

Kincaid is one of the city’s best performers, and she tackles some of the most difficult roles in the canon with relish. Last year, she played Martha in Theatrical Outfit’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Now, her take on Aloysius — a role made famous by Cherry Jones and Meryl Streep — is fun and formidable. Though stern and intimidating, Kincaid plays up that Aloysius, once a married woman, has worldly knowledge and that she views her responsibilities as an extension of care, even if the other characters dismiss it as callous meanness.

Walker’s part is likely the most difficult, for the audience rarely gets to see the character in moments alone. We do not get to see what’s driving Flynn, only the face he shows others. Is he manipulative, defensive, unjustly accused, indignant, arrogant or guilty? All are possible. Walker betrays nothing with his excellent approach.

Velasco is lovely as James, an audience surrogate who wants to believe the best of people. The dark topics and insinuations trouble the character profoundly, and Velasco’s performance generates audience sympathy. James wants to remain uncorrupted. We want that for her.

The set design from Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay and the period costumes by Dr. L. Nyrobi Moss are beautiful.

Actor’s Express delivers a very strong production here, performed with precision and care.

Where & When

Doubt: A Parable is at Actor’s Express through June 22. Tickets, $51.50, with discounts available.
887 W. Marietta St. NW. (King Plow Arts Center)

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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant.