"#1 Show of the Year. John Patrick Shanley's drama is simple in outline, complex in resonance."
- TIME MAGAZINE

"Inspired and extraordinary. Tight, absorbing ... A superb new drama by John Patrick Shanley."
- THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Grade: A! A breathtaking work of immense proportion. Positively brilliant."
- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"The best new play of the season. That rarity of rarities, an issue-driven play that is unpreachy, thought-provoking, and so full of high drama that the audience with which I saw it gasped out loud a half-dozen times at its startling twists and turns."
- WALL STREET JOURNAL

"A terrific, marvelous new play. Astonishing theatricality. A tough, timely story, rich in character, language and ideas."
- ASSOCIATED PRESS

"Passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing. Could not be more timely. A potent, fast-moving drama."
- NEWSDAY

"John Patrick Shanley's sleeper of a hit about a nun, a priest and the evidence of things unseen is … an inspired study in moral uncertainty with the compellingly certain structure of an old-fashioned detective drama."
- THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Mr. Shanley … deserves the highest possible praise for grasping the subtle difference between a political play and a play with a political setting. DOUBT is the latter. It doesn't try to talk you into doing anything but thinking - hard - about the gnarly complexity of human behavior."
- WALL STREET JOURNAL

Burning Boat Theatre brings Doubt, A Parable to Newfoundland! Directed by Clar Doyle, this play by John Patrick Shanley is set in a Catholic school in 1964. The story centres on a conservative nun (Jacinta Graham) who is determined to uncover the truth about a questionable relationship between a popular, liberal priest (Michael Coady) and one of the students under her charge. Much of the play's quick-fire dialogue tackles themes of religion, morality, authority and certainty.

However, to regard John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, A Parable as a tale of guilt or innocence would be doing it a disservice. Obviously, tackling the themes of authority and certainty in the context of religion and morality gives it an compelling power that resonates given our past. However, this story would have an impact in any context because it is about the complexity of human relationships, about power and authority, about gossip, about how we arrive at certainty and what we empower as truth. As Shanley puts it, this play "is about the whole of idea of certainty or lack thereof and that having a lack of certainty and living in doubt can be a passionate exercise rather than something that cuts you off at the knees and makes you weak. In fact, it can make you strong. To live in a state of doubt is to live in a dynamic present tense way rather than sit back on the couch of convictions."

Doubt has garnered critical acclaim and awards since its debut in 2005. The play was heralded as "Best Play of the Year" by over 10 newspapers and magazines, including Time, Entertainment Weekly, and The Wall Street Journal. The Broadway performances of Doubt have received numerous awards. It assembled 8 nominations for the 2005 Tony Awards and won 4 Tonys, including Best Play. For Doubt, Shanley was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an award he could put on the mantle next to his Academy Award for Best Screenplay for the 1987 film, Moonstruck, starring Cher, Nicolas Cage and Olympia Dukakis.

Miramax Films' adaptation of Shanley's Doubt stars Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn, Amy Adams as Sister James and is due out in January 2009.

Burning Boat Theatre's production promises to be a highlight of the theatre season in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Website and Burning Boat Logo designed by Webpages4Artists.com