What a gift John Patrick Shanley gave to middle-aged-and-over actresses when he brought Doubt to the stage. The role of Sister Aloysius is the sort performers dream about: dominating, unpredictable, withering, unwittingly comic, getting by not on glamour but on ugly old self-righteousness, mean-spirited certainty and unflappable overconfidence. Sister Aloysius is a Dirty Harry of a nun, unbothered by fine moral distinctions, and willing to plug any culprit she suspects of malfeasance, sufficient evidence or not. She's the perfect anti-heroine for our youth-obsessed, politically correct culture, the Shadow figure we've all repressed in favor of Miley Cyrus. Sure, she's a bad-tempered old prune. Nevertheless, she's quite wonderful. All she's missing is a pistol and the words "Make my day."
Still, she does have tricks of her own — and as played by Christine Decker (above) in the fine production at American Stage (which I saw in a preview), she's willing to use them all to demolish a young priest whom she suspects of sexual misconduct. In case you've already seen the film with Meryl Streep as Aloysius, let me assure you that there's still reason to visit the stage version starring Decker.
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2009.