Doubt: A Parable is a 2004 play by John Patrick Shanley originally staged off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club on November 23, 2004. The production transferred to the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway in March 2005 and closed on July 2, 2006 after 525 performances and 25 previews.
The play is set in the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx during the fall of 1964. The school is subject to the authority of the parish, and thus the priests, ...
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Doubt: A Parable is a 2004 play by John Patrick Shanley originally staged off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club on November 23, 2004. The production transferred to the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway in March 2005 and closed on July 2, 2006 after 525 performances and 25 previews.
The play is set in the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx during the fall of 1964. The school is subject to the authority of the parish, and thus the priests, of St. Nicholas. There are two priests in the parish. The priest in charge, Monsignor Benedict, 79 years old, is "very good" but "otherworldly in the extreme." The other priest, Father Flynn, is much younger, new to the parish, and good at basketball. The opening line of the play is a sermon in which he asks: "What do you do when you're not sure?"
The principal of the school, Sister Aloysius, is a conservative nun who insists that her students not be coddled. Father Flynn believes the clergy should be more accessible to the parish and be...
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