New York, the 1960s. Sister Aloysius is a hard-bitten nun and principal of the St. Nicholas Church school. When she suspects Father Flynn, the parish priest of abusing a student, her pursuit of the truth is fearsome and unflinching. Flynn protests his innocence, but Aloysius is a scalpel in search of a jugular. As she tightens her grip, she begins to question not only her beliefs, but the institution she's served her whole life.
Best known as a film adaptation starring Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John Patrick Shanley's Catholic paranoia party Doubt took the 2005 Pullitzer Prize for Drama as well as a Tony Award for Best Play. Shanley's script is precise and cold, the scenes brisk as the Bronx winter setting. This is a text steeped in bitterness and suspicion — the characters twisted and the ground frozen. Think on your sins before booking for this one.
Image: John Marmaras.