Red Drum Caught Off Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

'Doubt' Opened At South Carolina Repertory Theatre in Hilton Head

photo credit: Jay Karr

"Doubt" actually follows a trend of "thinking" films, plays and stories that are more multi-dimensional -- in other words, it's not a formulaic theatrical vehicle with beginning, middle and end. "It's a one-act play," (Blake)White (Production Associate) says. "The second act is the ride home."

In fact, critics hailed "Doubt" on Broadway as a play that ignites conversation among its viewers, citing its multiple layers of issues involving racism, religion and politics. "It played on Broadway for 500 performances," White says. "It was one of the best plays written in the past 15 years."

John Patrick Shanley, an Academy Award-winning screenplay writer, wrote "Doubt" in 2004 and is now set to direct it a film version starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Tom Evans, the play's director, and Barbara Farrar, who plays Sister Aloysius, decided to bring "Doubt" to the Repertory Company's stage after seeing it on Broadway two years ago.

"The curtain came down and we turned to each other afterward and said, 'We have to bring it to the SCRC.' "

Pat and Hank Haskell, the Repertory Company's founders, loved the play so much that "Doubt" is the longest-running play the company has ever had.

"Our audience is great," Evans says. "They like plays that challenge them."

'DOUBT' To Stage in Hilton Head at South Carolina Repertory Theatre

Although the following is a review from 'Doubt' premiere in Louisiana, Tom Evans is directing the production to be staged in Hilton Head at the South Carolina Repertory Theatre. 'DOUBT" opens in mid-February, 2008. SCRT is an intimate professional theatre located on the road to the airport down from the hospital on the island. Tom Evans has more than 35 years experience as a director and set designer.

There haven't been many American plays in recent memory as good as John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt: A Parable." Not for nothing did it win the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, the play's protagonist is the severely dogmatic, 60-ish Sister Aloysius, the much-feared school principal, who suspects the popular young priest, Father Brendan Flynn, of inappropriate sexual behavior with a male student, who happens to be the first African-American in the school.

"Doubt" is a compact, complex, brilliantly constructed play, each of its four characters grounded in his or her own truth. And around every corner of his moral mystery, Shanley is waiting to spring a surprise. Humor and laughter provide entertaining entree into the serious subject matter.