Doubt: A Parable

Making his Sydney Theatre Company debut, screen star Sam Reid (The Newsreader, Interview with the Vampire) faces up to stage and screen icon Pamela Rabe (Wentworth) in one of the most memorable and electrifying plays of the twenty-first century, John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play, Doubt: A Parable, at the Roslyn Packer Theatre this July.

Set in The Bronx, 1960s New York, Doubt follows Sister Aloysius (Rabe), the iron-fisted headmistress of St. Nicholas Church School, who suspects a progressive priest of inappropriate behaviour with the school’s sole Black student, Donald Muller. The charismatic Father Flynn (Reid) denies the allegations entirely.

In this brand-new production of John Patrick Shanley’s titanic drama, powerhouse Australian director Marion Potts makes a grand return to Sydney Theatre Company, joining forces with a quartet of the nation’s finest actors, also featuring Zindzi Okenyo (Director of Purpose) and Shannen Alyce Quan (The Dictionary of Lost Words, SIX The Musical), to wrestle with the gaps between belief and truth.

Potts, who started her career as an STC Resident Director and has directed over twenty productions for the Company, says: “it’s exciting to be embarking on such a gripping play with this powerful cast: these are artists at the top of their game, bringing craft and imaginative prowess to Shanley’s timeless text.”

After premiering off-Broadway in 2004, Doubt went on to Broadway in 2006, winning both the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play, and made its Australian premiere at Sydney Opera House in STC’s 2006 season. A 2008 film adaptation starring Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour-Hoffman received five Academy Award nominations.

Twenty years later, this potent, intelligent story has “never been more urgent” (Variety) than it is today.