By Timothy Ruppert
More than twenty years after its premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, A Parable remains an emotionally intense, narratively complex drama that calls institutional injustices to account while rendering its own particular story with a provocative nebulousness. Shanley never decisively resolves what took place at St. Nicholas Catholic church and School in New York City in 1964 between the much-loved Father Flynn (Chris Bondi) and the lonely eighth-grader Donald Muller. Nor does the playwright settle whether school principal Sister Aloysius (Erica Fox Zabusky), a woman of great conscience, takes the right course against Flynn, whom she identifies from the start as a wolf in the fold. The play’s ambiguities proliferate, and questions engender questions seemingly ad infinitum. With exceptional sensitivity and insight, Paragon Theatre’s creative team brings us a new production of Doubt that presents the plot’s obliquities without missing Shanley’s overarching critique of hierarchical power systems.
The superb guidance of Deborah Metzger (director) and Alex Kerr (assistant director) ensures that we never lose the thread amid the show’s elusiveness. Their collaboration lets us ponder both the particulars of an unsettled sequence of events and the more abstract ethical issues that lie beyond this parable. The intelligent direction also creates opportunities for the exceptional cast to work wonders with their characters. Bondi astonishes as Flynn. His impressive performance amplifies the play’s gray areas, making us wonder in every scene if Flynn is a victim, a villain, or both at once. I find his work especially admirable given that, according to his biographical note in the playbill, Bondi has not acted in a play for several years. Zabusky plays Sister Aloysius with understated power, never acquiescing in the easy choice to portray the principal as a one-note crusader devoid of self-reflexivity. Nicole Slaven-Rettig shines as the guileless Sister James. Her journey from innocence to experience is thoroughly believable and genuinely moving. As the post-show talkback notes, Sister James serves as an “Every Person,” the audience’s surrogate into Doubt’s intricate world, and Slaven-Rettig makes a remarkable emissary, most notably in a second-act garden scene with Flynn and a persistently cawing bird. As Mrs. Muller, Archana Janardhanan brings fire to a crucial meeting with Sister Aloysius. Together, the four-person cast enhances the mystery of the play without obscuring the show’s cardinally significant indictment of systemic wrongs.
An additional note for consideration: after this, my second visit to a Paragon Theatre production, I found their house staff among the warmest, most gracious people in the Pittsburgh theatre community. They create an eminently welcoming environment and go to notable lengths to make patrons feel like they belong (including helping me to my seat through the partly darkened seating area while my wife parked our car)—my sincere applause to these kind representatives of the company.
A difficult but indispensable play, Doubt, A Parable receives a praiseworthy interpretation from the Paragon Theatre team. I highly recommend this show for anyone who enjoys exquisitely crafted theatre that fearlessly asks questions of conscience, compassion, and responsibility.
—TR
Doubt, A Parable runs at Paragon Theatre, now located at 1321 State Avenue in Coraopolis, PA 15108, through October 10, 2026. Tickets may be purchased here.
