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Event
Doubt: A Parable
EXTENDED through March 3rd!!
The Feb. 23 performance will have a special start time of 5 PM for ARTWALK night at F.A.T. Village. Remain for the entire evening and enjoy contemporary street art at Rolling Stock Gallery with live music, live painting and other fine artist's venues in this new Arts District.
Did he or didn't he? Where's the proof? A seed of doubt is sown. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play, Doubt is a mesmerizing, suspense-filled drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Sister Aloysius Beauvier believes in restraint, self-control and a rigid dedication to discipline. When she learns Father Flynn has taken a special interest in a troubled altar boy, she becomes suspicious of his progressive, engaging attitudes. Something must be done.
Miramax Films' 2008 adaptation of the play stars Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn, Amy Adams as Sister James and Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller (the name was changed in the film). Production began on December 1, 2007 with playwright John Patrick Shanley directing and Scott Rudin producing. They all received Academy Award nominations for their roles. Streep for Academy Award for Best Actress, Hoffman for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Adams and Davis for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Shanley's play, Doubt, a parable, is set in 1964, at St. Nicolas Elementary School in the Bronx, one year after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The crisply-written play focuses on the conversations between Sister Aloysius, the strict school principal, and two more progressive teachers, Sister James and Father Flynn, who is also the parish priest. Once Sister Aloysius suspects Father Flynn of molesting the school's only African- American student, Donald Muller, she is determined to have Flynn removed from the school. In his defense, Father Flynn reminds Sister Aloysius that "even if you feel certainty, it is an emotion and not a fact." Moving from conviction to proof, rather than from proof to conviction, Sister Aloysius represents faith and, by extension, religion. In contrast, Sister James and Father Flynn both represent doubt, which Shanley, in his Preface, celebrates as "a passionate exercise" whereas certainty is a "resting place." He reminds us that "doubt requires more courage than conviction does."
However, in keeping with the play's rejection of absolutes, Shanley prevents us from reaching pat conclusions about any of the three characters: Sister Aloysius's views on teaching are presented as a valid counterpoint to Sister James and Father Flynn's soft approach, and, regarding the play's central theme, we are left with Sister Aloysius confessing, "I have such doubts!" Whether she is referring only to her previous convictions about Father Flynn or to religious faith in general is for the audience to determine. Indeed, audience members' interpretations of the play will largely be a reflection of themselves and their beliefs rather than of the play itself. Nevertheless, Doubt warns us against adopting Sister Aloysius's strategy of finding only what we expect or wish to find. As Shanley writes in the preface, "There is no last word. That's the silence under the chatter of our time."
**THIS EVENT HAS A STRICT REFUND POLICY. No refunds will be processed more than 12 hours after the time of purchase.**
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LocationAndrews Living Arts Studio (View)
23 NW 5th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
United States
Categories
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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