Chagrin Valley Little Theatre

Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley

Performance Dates & Tickets

About the Play

Every easy choice today will have its consequence tomorrow. Mark my words.

Directed by Don Edelman

CVLT presents the Cleveland-area community theatre premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s powerful Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama, starring Eric Oswald as Father Flynn, Harriet Deveto as Sister Aloysious, Cheryl Winslow as Sister James and Sharonn M. Foxx as Mrs. Muller.

Sister Aloysius, a Bronx parochial school principal, takes matters into her own hands when she suspects the young Father Flynn of improper relations with one of the male students. 

This gripping, tightly written mystery confronts issues straight from today’s headlines, and was chosen as the best play of the year (2004) by more than ten newspapers and magazines. A film version featuring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis was released at the AFI Film Festival in October 2008.  

Ben Brantley of the New York Times calls Doubt  “…an inspired study in moral uncertainty with the compelling certain structure of an old-fashioned detective drama…One of the year’s ten best.”

“…a lean, potent drama…passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing.” – Linda Winer, Newsday

John Patrick Shanley is the author of numerous plays, including Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Four Dogs and a Bone, and Where’s My Money?  He has written extensively for film and television, and his screen credits include Joe Versus the Volcano (which he also directed), and Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for best original screenplay. 

A native of the Bronx, Shanley was thrown out of St. Helene’s kindergarten, banned from St. Anthony’s hot lunch program, and expelled from Cardinal Spellman High School.  When asked why he had been treated this way, Shanley burst into tears and said he had no idea.  Then he went into the Marine Corps.  He did fine.

Doubt was originally staged off-Broadway on November 23, 2004 at the Manhattan Theatre Club, moving to Broadway the following year.  With 25 previews and 525 performances, Doubt was the fifth longest running play on Broadway in the ten years before it closed.  A 2006 Paris production was directed by Roman Polanski.