Father Flynn (Liev Schreiber) is a popular priest, beloved by the students at St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx.  He is progressive on theological questions, amenable, for example, to the singing of secular Christmas songs during the annual pageant.  He has also taken a particular interest in Donald Muller, the first Black student at St. Nicholas.  It is the fall of 1964.  Needless to say, Donald Muller could use a friend.

Sister Aloysius (Amy Ryan), the principal of St. Nicholas, is not beloved by her students.  She is conservative on theological questions and believes “Frosty the Snowman” is heretical as it “espouses a pagan belief in magic.”  Sister Aloysius believes Father Flynn’s relationship with Donald Muller is inappropriate.  Or rather, she thinks she knows the relationship is inappropriate, despite her inability to produce any evidence.  Father Flynn is likable.  Does that mean he is innocent?  Sister Aloysius is not.  Does that mean she is wrong?  No one wants Father Flynn to be guilty.  If he is, most seem content to ignore the problem.  Even Donald’s mother (Quincy Tyler Bernstine).  She knows her son is “that way” and just wants him to survive long enough to get away from his violent, homophobic father.

To risk naming the obvious, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt succeeds because it asks us to sit with uncertainty.  We never find out what really happened, whether the relationship between the priest and the boy is innocent or malicious or something in between.  If the actors are good, as they are here, they make a variety of explanations plausible.  The script is appropriately spare, and it is notable that none of the characters ever use the words sex or abuse or gay.

The play is subtitled A Parable, and on theological questions, at least, Father Flynn seems to triumph.  In the first scene, he delivers a sermon, which ends with a counterintuitive but humanizing lesson, one that explains Sister Aloysius’ isolation: “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.  When you are lost, you are not alone.”

Doubt runs through April 21st at the Todd Haimes Theatre.  227 W. 42nd Street  New York, NY.  1 hour 30 minutes.  No intermission. Photograph by Joan Marcus.