RELATED EVENTS

• Doubt

Sister Aloysius and Sister James, played by Cora Vander Broek, confront the feeling expressed in the play's title in a scene from "Doubt." (Heather Charles for The Star)

Priscilla Lindsay is Sister Aloysius, and Lenny Von Dohlen plays the role of Father Flynn. (Heather Charles for The Star)

Director James Still consults with Lenny Von Dohlen during a "Doubt" rehearsal.

It's not that American playwrights haven't written about witch hunts before. But the 2007-08 theater season in Indianapolis and around the country makes it clear that playgoers remain fascinated by the concept of suspicion.

In her 1934 drama "The Children's Hour," Lillian Hellman wrote of a spoiled child who struck out at her teachers by spreading gossip. In 1953, Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" recalled the Salem witch trials, in which 17th-century Puritan women were falsely accused of engaging in the occult.

This season's hottest drama -- or at least one of its most produced plays -- is "Doubt," opening Wednesday at the Indiana Repertory Theatre.

The brainchild of John Patrick Shanley, who also wrote the screenplay to "Moonstruck," "Doubt" won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for drama. This is the first season that rights became available to stage "Doubt" nationally, and IRT's production will be one of about 36 across the country.

Set in 1964, the four-character drama tells of an old-school nun in the Bronx who debates whether to press child molestation charges against a friendly young priest who teaches in the school where she serves as principal. Sister Aloysius has no proof against Father Flynn, but she tries to confirm her instinct that the priest accosted the school's first black student. The nun tries to enlist help from Sister James, who is another teacher in the school, and from Mrs. Muller, the boy's mother.

But, true to its title, "Doubt" is about broader issues than child molestation. It concerns the process and potential impact of acting on our doubts.

James Still, IRT's resident playwright who is directing "Doubt," said the play also concerns itself with "issues of faith and justice. In John Patrick Shanley's preface to the play, he gives a beautiful account of where the play comes from. He talks about how doubt is a very powerful place, how it is the beginning of growth. That is a very radical thing to put out there in our culture right now."

Priscilla Lindsay, who plays Sister Aloysius at IRT, said "Doubt" is "about right and wrong, and how you stand up for your convictions and impose your convictions on others.

"I think what Shanley does better than anybody else I can think of, is that he makes (doubt) a dramatic, active element of the play. The whole issue of doubt becomes almost like its own character. It's a moving, palpable feeling onstage."

IRT's production also will feature Lenny Von Dohlen as Father Flynn, Cora Vander Broek as Sister James and Dwandra Nickole as Mrs. Muller.

Nickole, a Ball State University theater professor making her Indianapolis debut in "Doubt," said that, even though the molestation of a child is a subplot, the eighth-grade boy, Mrs. Muller's son, never makes an appearance.

"He is only mentioned, never seen -- but, boy, is he present," Nickole said. "His mother thinks he is a very bright student, and she definitely expresses that in her fight to keep him in school."

At a time when the Roman Catholic Church continues to cope with accusations and lawsuits concerning abuse by priests, Lindsay said that part of the interest in "Doubt" is that, "even though it takes place in 1964, there's a timeliness that can't be denied. The issues involved are still issues we are struggling with today."

Still said the play's setting in that particular year is "so key," because it's only one year after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and soon after the onset of Vatican II's reforms of the Catholic Church.

"The world," Still said, "was feeling like it had been turned upside down and inside out."

But don't attend "Doubt" thinking you'll figure it all out.

Nickole predicts that "as an audience member, you won't really know at the end what to feel, what to believe. Instead, you go away wanting to think about it."

Still said that, by the end, "audience members will have different opinions about what happened in this story. They'll take different sides -- maybe even change sides during the play. I think that's good."

Here's how 'Doubt' travels

Productions of John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt" have been scheduled at about 36 regional theaters nationwide this season. Since last fall, it has been staged in cities including Houston, Albuquerque, Memphis, Sarasota, Salt Lake City, Kansas City and New Orleans. Here's a sampling of upcoming productions:

• Indianapolis, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Wednesday through Feb. 9.

• Chapel Hill, N.C., PlayMakers Repertory Company, Jan. 26-Feb. 29.

• Syracuse Stage, Feb. 13-March 2.

• Greensboro, N.C., Triad Stage, March 9-30.

• Denver, Ricketson Theatre, April 4-May 17.

• Columbus, Ohio, Vern Riffe Center Studio One Theatre, April 4-27.

• Louisville, Ky., Actors Theatre of Louisville, April 16-May 10.

• Portland, Maine. Portland Stage Company, April 29-May 25.

• Salem, Oregon, Pentacle Theatre, July 11-Aug. 2.

'Doubt'

When: Wednesday through Feb. 9.
Location: Indiana Repertory Theatre, 140 W. Washington St.
Tickets: $24-$49.
Info: (317) 635-5252, www.irtlive.com