On Friday night, Boat Club Productions and director Peter Froehlingsdorf presented their opening night audience with a thought-provoking 90-minute drama, John Patrick Shanley’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Doubt.”
Set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, the play centers on the intense conflict between Father Flynn (Ari Eilola) and Sister Aloysius (Ellie Martin), a nun and the school’s principal, over whether the priest has had an improper relationship with Donald Muller, a twelve-year-old boy.
The play originally premiered in 2004, as shocking reports of sexual impropriety within the Catholic Church were creating disturbing headlines with accusations that still have lasting impacts on the Church, the victims, and the cover-ups.
Froehlingsdorf’s impeccable casting is spot on for each of the play’s four characters. With each, he has helped them navigate the moral land mines that each character must tackle to tell this heartbreaking story.
Playing the impressionable young nun, Sister James, Jacque Black provides some of the play’s humor to lighten the dark and tense mood, and convincingly offers a stark contrast to the strict, cold, and regimented Sister Aloysius.
Black’s convincing portrayal of Sister James’s sweet nature and her desire for her students to love her makes her seem all the more vulnerable as she becomes embroiled in Sister Aloysius’s relentless plan to expose Dr. Flynn.
Sister James laments to Sister Aloysius, “I want to be guided by you and responsible to the children, but I want my peace of mind. I must tell you I have been longing for the return of my peace of mind.”
In her one short scene, Tolu Ekisola as Mrs. Muller, Donald’s mother, is stunning in her anguish about her son, when she surprisingly does not want to do anything about his relationship with Father Flynn.
Relating that Donald has been bullied in his other school and that the kids at this school also don’t like him, Muller implies that her son may be gay and that her husband would kill Donald if he found out.
To Sister Aloysius’s amazement, Mrs. Muller says, “One man is good to him, this priest. And does a man have his reasons? Yes. Everybody does. You have your reasons, but do I ask the man why he’s good to my son? No. I don’t care why. My son needs some man to care about him. And to see him through the way he wants to go. And thank God this educated man, with some kindness in him, wants to do just that.”
Ellie Martin, who has played Sister Aloysius in a previous production of “Doubt,” could portray her as totally heartless. Martin, however, makes the Sister’s quest to uncover the truth seem a genuine concern for Donald and the other students in the school.
“When you take a step to address wrongdoing, you are taking a step away from God, but in His service. Dealing with such matters is hard and thankless work,” she admits to Sister James.
As she explains her view of the beleaguered Donald and Father Flynn’s intentions toward him, she says, “The little sheep lagging behind is the one the wolf goes for.”
Ari Eilola was a professional actor in Finland, with a vast resume of acting in theatre, radio, and opera. He is performing his first role in the U.S. and his first in English. His American accent is flawless.
With Father Flynn, Eilola has the monumental task of presenting a character who may or may not be guilty. He is entirely believable as a sincere priest delivering homilies with themes about gossip, intolerance, and doubt.
With gestures, tone, and expressions that, at times, make him seem guilty and at other times maligned and innocent, Eilola keeps the audience guessing about what they feel is the truth.
His quote, “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty,” is ironic because it can certainly be about the doubt others have about who he truly is and perhaps also his own doubt about the choices he has made in his life that he regrets, particularly perhaps, with the younger members of his flock.
Curtis Phillips’s set design is simplistic yet effective, featuring three beautiful “stained glass” windows accented with lighted cross-like patterns that emphasize a less traditional view of the religious setting.
“Doubt” fits perfectly in the small theater at Fitger’s. The intimate setting and the close proximity of the audience add to the intensity of the storytelling, as does the ability to see faces close up and read the expressions on the actors’ faces.
Playwright John Patrick Shanley wrote an unusual preface to the play in 2005.
“Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite; it is a passionate exercise. You may come out of my play uncertain. You may want to be sure. Look down on that feeling. Got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. the silence under the chatter of our time.”
Information About “Doubt, A Parable”
By John Patrick Shanley
LOCATION
Spirit of the North Theatre, Fitger’s Complex – 3rd Floor
REMAINING PERFORMANCES
7:30 pm June 19–21, 2025
2:00 pm June 22, 2025 (matinee)
TICKETS
Box Office: (218) 623-7065
Online Tickets
Next up for Boat Club Productions:
The Musical Tick, Tick… Boom!
Directed by Peter Froehlingsdorf
September 26 – October 5, 2025
