Post by Duchess of Lashes on Feb 15, 2006 19:49:54 GMT -5
I eagerly opened the Yahoo alert for the Doubt review by AP Drama Critic Michael Kuchwara, titled DOUBT HAS BIGGER BOLDER CAST - great lead in but I really shouldn't have bothered - it was extremely disappointing:
NEW YORK - The avenging angel at the center of "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, has just gotten bigger, bolder and less subtle.
The esteemed English actress Eileen Atkins has now taken over the role of Sister Aloysius, the take-no-prisoners nun who believes a parish priest is having an improper relationship with a young boy at the local parochial school. And she is determined to bring him down.
Admittedly, Atkins has a tough act to follow: Cherry Jones, whose nuanced performance expertly drove home the uncertainty that underpins Shanley's fine drama. Jones was forceful without being overbearing and, in a weird way, strangely likable.
Atkins, sporting a pronounced Irish accent and what looks like a permanently pinched profile, blazes with an aggressive theatricality. Right from the first moment she appears on stage, you know this is a woman who has definite opinions. There is no room to maneuver in this technically accomplished yet black-and-white performance.
As Father Flynn, Ron Eldard is not as charismatic as the role's original actor, Brian F. O'Byrne, depending more on bluster to get through the priest's big confrontation scene with his accuser.
And Jena Malone, the play's third newcomer, hasn't yet made the role of Sister James, the impressionable, goodhearted young nun, her own. Right now, the actress seems to be channeling her predecessor, even down to copying the nun's odd but endearing accent.
Still on aboard, though, is the Tony-winning Adriane Lenox as the boy's distraught yet curiously practical mother. Her short, single scene remains a model of compressed emotion, beautifully handled.
The questions raised by Shanley's remarkable play are still there, and those coming to the production for the first time will still be intrigued by the story he is telling, a tale he repeatedly has referred to as "a parable." Now, though, because of the diminished ambiguity of its key performances, this "Doubt" seems more of a sermon than it should be.
I would certainly beg to differ! We never had benefit of seeing the original cast, nor did we get to see Eileen Atkins, but this review cannot possibly be based on the same play I was fortunate enough to witness on the 14th of January.
"Bluster" is what the wind does on a cold winter morning in Toronto (or at Attica where it rips right through those tiers) but in no way is it a word I would have chosen to describe Ron Eldard's portrayal of Father Brendan Flynn. I will freely admit that I am biased - there is no doubt about that - but I found Eldard's Father Brendan Flynn, brimming with charisma, full of nuances, appealing; he was more than capable of grasping the emotional depth necessary to take on that role and I think he played it, and in particular, that most difficult scene, brilliantly. As I said before, so much of what he brought to Father Flynn was very real and the audience reacted to that realism.
Where I do agree with this reviewer, though, is in his assessment of Jenna Malone. The weakest link in the cast, she did, none-the-less still manage to portray Sister James as someone who is really not sure whether to set the wheels in motion, and once done, not sure that she is at all prepared to deal with the outcome.
NEW YORK - The avenging angel at the center of "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, has just gotten bigger, bolder and less subtle.
The esteemed English actress Eileen Atkins has now taken over the role of Sister Aloysius, the take-no-prisoners nun who believes a parish priest is having an improper relationship with a young boy at the local parochial school. And she is determined to bring him down.
Admittedly, Atkins has a tough act to follow: Cherry Jones, whose nuanced performance expertly drove home the uncertainty that underpins Shanley's fine drama. Jones was forceful without being overbearing and, in a weird way, strangely likable.
Atkins, sporting a pronounced Irish accent and what looks like a permanently pinched profile, blazes with an aggressive theatricality. Right from the first moment she appears on stage, you know this is a woman who has definite opinions. There is no room to maneuver in this technically accomplished yet black-and-white performance.
As Father Flynn, Ron Eldard is not as charismatic as the role's original actor, Brian F. O'Byrne, depending more on bluster to get through the priest's big confrontation scene with his accuser.
And Jena Malone, the play's third newcomer, hasn't yet made the role of Sister James, the impressionable, goodhearted young nun, her own. Right now, the actress seems to be channeling her predecessor, even down to copying the nun's odd but endearing accent.
Still on aboard, though, is the Tony-winning Adriane Lenox as the boy's distraught yet curiously practical mother. Her short, single scene remains a model of compressed emotion, beautifully handled.
The questions raised by Shanley's remarkable play are still there, and those coming to the production for the first time will still be intrigued by the story he is telling, a tale he repeatedly has referred to as "a parable." Now, though, because of the diminished ambiguity of its key performances, this "Doubt" seems more of a sermon than it should be.
********************************************
I would certainly beg to differ! We never had benefit of seeing the original cast, nor did we get to see Eileen Atkins, but this review cannot possibly be based on the same play I was fortunate enough to witness on the 14th of January.
"Bluster" is what the wind does on a cold winter morning in Toronto (or at Attica where it rips right through those tiers) but in no way is it a word I would have chosen to describe Ron Eldard's portrayal of Father Brendan Flynn. I will freely admit that I am biased - there is no doubt about that - but I found Eldard's Father Brendan Flynn, brimming with charisma, full of nuances, appealing; he was more than capable of grasping the emotional depth necessary to take on that role and I think he played it, and in particular, that most difficult scene, brilliantly. As I said before, so much of what he brought to Father Flynn was very real and the audience reacted to that realism.
Where I do agree with this reviewer, though, is in his assessment of Jenna Malone. The weakest link in the cast, she did, none-the-less still manage to portray Sister James as someone who is really not sure whether to set the wheels in motion, and once done, not sure that she is at all prepared to deal with the outcome.
Yay for me. Here's the pic:
