Onstage: Review: Doubt

When the play ends, your conversation will begin

Sandy Underwood


Titanic struggle: Caitlin O'Connell and Ted Deasy match wills in Doubt.



If you need to demonstrate to someone why the Cincinnati Playhouse is one of America's most respected regional theaters, I suggest you take him or her to see the current production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt: A Parable.

Artistic Director Ed Stern selected a winner, of course, without having to think too hard: Doubt won the 2005 Tony Award for best play in addition to the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In fact, it's the most produced play on regional stages across the United States this year, where 34 separate productions are being staged during 2007-08 according to American Theatre magazine. (That's the highest number recorded on the magazine's annual list in more than a decade.)

But the success of the Playhouse's staging of Doubt is not merely because it