A Dose of Doubt

"IN DAYS GONE BY,” says playwright John Patrick Shanley, “doubt was the province of the wise. Now it’s perceived to be a sign of weakness.” That shift in viewpoint intrigued him enough that he wrote a play titled Doubt—which has shown no sign of weakness. The riveting story of a nun’s dilemma when she fears a priest is guilty of child abuse, Shanley’s drama became a huge hit off—then on—Broadway, winning the outstanding-play Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, both in 2005.

Two members of its cast, Cherry Jones and Adriane Lenox, also garnered Tonys for outstanding actress and featured actress in a play, respectively. Both reprise their roles when Broadway/ San Diego brings Doubt to the Civic Theatre October 31–November 5. It’s rare for a touring production to feature even one original-cast Tony winner, so we’re doubly blessed. Chris McGarry and Lisa Joyce complete the cast.

“I’m stingy with this play,” says Jones, who’d like to play her character in all performances of Doubt. “Knowing I was going to do the tour,” she says with a laugh, “I did let someone else [Eileen Atkins] replace me on Broadway.” She continues enthusiastically: “I’ve never been in a play that the audiences enjoy more. It more than pulls them in. They’re on fire.”

Since the play is set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, it’s not about the recent sex scandals in the Catholic Church, although its theme obviously resonates. But, Jones points out, Doubt is not anti-clergy. “Catholics appreciate the fairness,” she says. And she sees the play as “a Rorschach test” for each member of the audience.

Jones is familiar to Old Globe audiences for her performances in 1997’s Pride’s Crossing and 2005’s Intimate Friends, and she’s looking forward to another stint here. “I had the best time in San Diego,” she says, “I particularly loved leaving the theater at night and enjoying the sights, sounds and smells in Balboa Park.”

November is a fertile month for Broadway/San Diego, which also presents the evergreen Irish dance musical Riverdance (November 14-19) and Plaid Tidings (November 17–December 3), the sequel to another major favorite, Forever Plaid. In the new one, again created by Stuart Ross, the lovably harmonic Plaids get a repeat resurrection, this time to do the holiday show they failed to schedule in their first incarnation.

LA MESA NATIVE RICK NAJERA has enjoyed a prolific and award-laden career, writing, acting and producing in television, film and theater, including a Broadway run last year starring in his popular Latinologues. Locally, he and his work have been most on display at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, which has presented three Najera shows (A Quiet Love, Latins Anonymous and Latinologues). A fourth comes November 3-12, when the Rep offers the comedy Sweet 15 (Quinceañera). Set in National City, it concerns a man who returns to his family after a mysterious 10-year absence. Because he left just before his daughter’s 15th birthday, she didn’t have the traditional quinceañera celebration. Now, even though she’s 25, he wants to make it up to her with a big party. The musical fun is helmed by Rep artistic director Sam Woodhouse.

UNLESS YOU HAD VERY SPECIALIZED history classes, you probably aren’t aware that there were female pirates, many of whom—like Anne Bonny—were as menacing as the infamous male brigands. Well, you can raise your consciousness when Moxie, that spunky troupe headed by four talented females, opens its new season with Wet, or Isabella the Pirate Queen Enters the Horse Latitudes (November 18–December 10). In Liz Duffy Adams’ time-shifting mélange, three women pirates and a drag queen seize a nearly wrecked ship manned by a captain and two sailors heading for war.

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