What with the thousands of newspaper articles exposing child abuse and its covering up in the Catholic Church worldwide, and the shadow cast by films such as Deliver Us from Evil, Spotlight and By the Grace of God, it’s hard to imagine there’s much room for doubt in our minds when it comes to allegations of paedophilia levelled against a member of the clergy.

No smoke without fire, right?

But John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt – revived here by Sydney Theatre Company 20 years after its Australian debut – expertly sows uncertainty where we think none exists.

Sydney Theatre Company’s Doubt: A Parable. Photo © Prudence Upton

St Nicholas Church and School, the Bronx, New York, 1964. The Catholic Church is in a period of self-examination and rapid change – or crisis, depending on perspective – prompted by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

At first glance, Father Flynn (played by Sam Reid) seems the ideal Vatican II poster boy for. Young, progressive and eloquent, he prides himself on being approachable. He’s got game on the basketball court, too. The St Nick’s boys have warmed to him, thanks in part to his post-match “bull sessions” fuelled by Kool-Aid and cookies.

He’s notably kind to one boy in particular: Donald Muller, the school’s only African-American student.

But Sister Aloysius (Pamela Rabe), a formidable nun of the old school variety (she frets over the moral implications of students being allowed to write with ballpoint pens), smells a rat. Or worse. She knows Flynn’s type.

Is Flynn offering genuine pastoral care to an isolated boy with a troubled home life, or is he grooming him? Is he a compassionate priest whose humanity is mistaken for impropriety, or the target of a vindictive campaign by a zealot who equates warmth with
moral weakness?

Sam Reid, Shannen Alyce Quan and Pamela Rabe in Sydney Theatre Company’s Doubt: A Parable. Photo © Prudence Upton

For 90 tension-filled minutes, punctuated by flashes of dry humour, Shanley draws us into a psychological duel in which certainty remains tantalisingly out of reach.

Designer Bob Cousins’ monumental set cleverly expands what is essentially a sequence of what are essentially chamber theatre scenes into a production that comfortably fills the Roslyn Packer stage. Its blandly imposing architecture evokes the institutional authority of the Catholic Church, while the slow transitions between Sister Aloysius’s austere office and a bleak winter garden lend the production a sense of inexorable momentum.

Damien Cooper cast a hard, wintry light over the proceedings. Slashing shadows cast by Sister Aloysius’ window frame over a seemingly cornered Flynn feel like a nod to film noir.

Director Marion Potts’ production is carefully calibrated; the tension accumulates almost imperceptibly. Crucially, she never tips the balance decisively towards Flynn’s innocence or guilt. Every pause, smile and outburst remains open to interpretation.

The production is impeccably cast. Pamela Rabe gives us a Sister Aloysius whose forbidding exterior – accentuated by the austere habit worn by the Sisters of Mercy back in the day – conceals a fierce commitment to justice and a wit that crackles like dry lightning.

Shannen Alyce Quan is an excellent foil as Sister James, the idealistic young teacher caught between her instinctive admiration for Flynn and her loyalty to Aloysius.

Sam Reid, who replaced the previously announced Sam Worthington in the role of Flynn, gives us a convincing blend of the callow and charismatic. Importantly, his Flynn is impossible to read with any confidence. It’s a canny performance of sustained ambiguity.

As Donald’s mother, Zindi Okenyo delivers a scalding performance in a single scene that explodes the world of the play.

Pamela Rabe and Zindzi Okenyo in Sydney Theatre Company’s Doubt: A Parable. Photo © Prudence Upton

Twenty years after its Sydney premiere, Doubt isn’t telling us anything we don’t know already about institutional abuse. But this production invites us to think beyond those circumstances to think about how certainty is constructed, how influence radiates, and the price paid when someone takes it upon themselves to become a whistle-blower.

The only thing you don’t doubt by the end of this production is that you have been treated to one of the great American plays of the 21st century.

Sydney Theatre Company presents Doubt: A Parable at the Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney until 2 August.