This was originally sent to Munk as a PM almost immediately after his original posting, but since others have broached the same subject, and since I did not receive a reply to my PM, I will copy and paste it here.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Hi Munk,
Great review of Doubt, with which I heartily concur.
I'm sending you a PM because this is about your Spoiler in the Doubt review and I didn't want my response to be part of a public thread. I saw the L.A. production last week and though Linda Hunt and Jonathan Cake are probably outclassed by the always astounding Miss Jones and Mr. O'Byrne, "our" production was nonetheless absolutely riveting, beautifully acted, and very discussion-provoking. The reason I'm writing is to comment a bit on your reservations regarding the boy's mother's reaction to the possible "abuse." My own (and only) concern was that perhaps she was a bit too modern, a bit anachronistically open-minded for that era. But it's not impossible that such a woman would exist. My interpretation of her conversation with Sister A. was not that her boy was "out" in any 2005 sense of the word. She knew that her boy was "that way" because mothers so often know. She doubtless knew from his manner and mannerisms, from the toys he liked to play with, from the clothes he liked to wear, from the things that interested him, etc. And his father knew too, that this was a "sissy boy," and in beating the boy, he was punishing him for not being a real boy, for not being a man. I believe that the mother and child had never talked about his incipient homosexuality. That was something she held deep inside and which caused her a great deal of pain, as did her child's loneliness and the fact that he had no adult male to mentor him. So if the love and guidance and caring provided by the priest came at a price, for her it was worth it. In any case, you are right, what an amazing play. And even at the end, we do not know if he was guilty or not. I thought he probably was, because he left the school after she threatened to call the nun at his previous place of employment, but he could have had other reasons for leaving. We'll never know.
I'm attaching a link for a review of the L.A. production that is very interesting about this point, and a few others. The reviewer, Travis Michael Holder, is also a respected openly gay actor in the L.A. area. I think you will be interested in reading what he wrote.
http://www.reviewplays.com/doubt.htm
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