John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt: A Parable, currently performed by the Sydney Theatre Company, is one of the most unsettling plays of the past two decades. Set in 1964 in the fictional St Nicholas Catholic school in the Bronx, it centres on the school’s headmistress Sister Aloysius Beauvier who has doubts about the new parish priest, Father Brendan Flynn. She believes he has behaved inappropriately towards Donald Muller, the school’s only Black student and decides to confront him about it.
Remarkable performances
Veteran actor Pamela Rabe does not simply play Sister Aloysius in this production – she is Sister Aloysius. Never did I imagine saying this, but Meryl Streep’s Oscar-nominated screen performance in the film version of this play was, in my view, surpassed.
Rabe is flinty and humourless, yet also deeply concerned for the welfare of her students. Even more remarkably, while Aloysius herself rarely smiles, Rabe repeatedly draws laughter from the audience through perfectly judged timing and razor-sharp delivery. It is an extraordinarily difficult balancing act, and she commands every scene.
Sam Reid, so memorable in ABC TV’s The Newsreader, is an engaging Father Flynn. He captures the priest’s warmth and charisma, making lines such as, “There is nothing wrong with love,” sound both sincere and creepy. I felt, however, that he is still growing into this complex role, and it will be interesting to watch his performance develop during the season.
Shannen Alyce Quan gives Sister James an affecting innocence as the young nun caught between obedience and conscience, while Zindzi Okenyo is quietly devastating as Donald’s mother, Mrs Muller. Her desperate response to Sister Aloysius’ concerns – “Let him have him!” – lands as one of the evening’s most heartbreaking moments, exposing the immense power the Catholic Church has traditionally held over its parishes and the impossible choices some parents faced.
A monastic set
Bob Cousins’ rotating set is appropriately austere: Sister Aloysius’ Spartan office and the rectory courtyard sit before bleak Bronx apartment blocks, their greys, browns, blacks and beige reflecting a world almost entirely stripped of warmth.
The evening did suffer one highly unusual interruption when proceedings stopped for an unexplained technical difficulty. In my decades of theatre-going, I have never experienced a performance halted mid-play. As the minutes ticked by, many audience members – myself included – were sneakily checking our watches and mentally calculating whether parking meters would expire before the final curtain. Following the richly deserved standing ovation, there was an almost comical stampede for the exits.
Yet that brief interruption was soon forgotten. Marion Potts’ production leaves us exactly where the playwright intended: in a world where certainty is elusive, motives are unknowable and doubt itself may be the only honest conclusion. It is gripping, deeply moving theatre led by a career-defining performance from Pamela Rabe. Doubt offers no easy answers … only lingering ambiguity. Much like life.
Doubt: A Parable
Sydney Theatre Company
Until 2 August, 2026
sydneytheatre.com.au
