Sister’s expression of Doubt

Brid Ní Neachtain relishes playing a disciplinarian head nun in the Pulitzer Prize-winning parable, says Colette Sheridan

ACTOR Brid Ní Neachtain says Sister Aloysius, the main character in the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama, Doubt, at Cork’s Everyman Palace Theatre from Feb 28-Mar 3, is “a meaty role”.

The play, set in 1964, is produced by Town Hall Theatre and Decadent Theatre Company. The plot revolves around the suspicion that a priest had improper relations with a school boy. Written by American playwright, screenwriter and director, John Patrick Shanley, a film of Doubt was made in 2008, starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Shanley directed the film, which he dedicated to Sister Margaret McEntee, a Sister of Charity nun who was Shanley’s first-grade teacher. He modelled the character of Sister James on McEntee.