Auditions: Saturday, 1 February 2025

Ruby Productions: Level 1, 15 Evan Street, Penrith

Written by John Patrick Shanley

Directed by Anthony Brown & Ann Attwood

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SYNOPSIS:

Recipient of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In this brilliant and powerful drama, Sister Aloysius, a Bronx school principal, takes matters into her own hands when she suspects the young Father Flynn of improper relations with one of the male students.

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AUDITION INFORMATION

By appointment only.

If you would like to book an audition, please email: rubyproductions99@gmail.com

PERFORMANCE DATES

Saturday, 31 May & 7 June 2025 at 7pm

Saturday, 14 June 2025 at 2pm & 7pm

PERFORMANCE LOCATION
The Ruby Theatre
Level 1, 15 Evan Street, Penrith

REHEARSAL INFORMATION

Rehearsal schedule provided on request.

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CHARACTERS

Father Flynn is a priest at St. Nicholas Church and School whom Sister Aloysius accuses of sexually abusing a student. Unlike Sister Aloysius, he believes that the Catholic Church needs to make an effort to be more progressive and relate to the general public. A generally well-liked and affable man, he takes an interest in the school’s only black student, Donald Muller. When Donald returns to class with alcohol on his breath after spending time alone with Father Flynn, Sister James begins to worry, so she reports the incident to Sister Aloysius, who immediately believes that Flynn has established an inappropriate relationship with the boy. To address this, she calls Flynn to her office, claiming that she and Sister James want to discuss the Christmas pageant. Believing that the pageants have become a bit “woebegone,” Flynn is more than willing to discuss the matter, even suggesting that the choir should sing a secular song—a suggestion Sister Aloysius frowns upon. When Father Flynn realizes that Aloysius has called him to her office to accuse him of abusing Donald Muller, he criticizes her for not going through the proper channels, reminding her that she should bring such complaints to Monsignor Benedict. In a conversation with Sister James shortly after this encounter, he makes an appeal to the young woman’s sensibilities, convincing her that he is—like her—a “compassion[ate]” man who only wants to support the students at St. Nicholas School. As a result, she decides to believe in his innocence. However, Sister Aloysius later lies that she's contacted a nun at his former parish, and his angry reaction is enough to convince her that he truly has abused Donald. He continues to deny this, but he also begs her to treat him with sympathy. When she leaves the room, he picks up the phone and calls the bishop, who lets him move to a new parish, where he becomes the pastor—turning his transfer into a promotion. Though Flynn's guilt is never confirmed nor denied, his ability to keep his position of authority (and indeed rise up in the Church) encourages the audience to see that institutions that concentrate power in the hands of a few may enable people to get away with immoral behavior.

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Sister Aloysius is a middle-aged nun who serves as the principal of St. Nicholas School. A strict disciplinarian, she is committed to what she sees as the traditional ways of running a Catholic school. Consequently, she urges Sister James to be a vigilant and unyielding teacher, insisting that the young woman needs to assert her authority over her students. This, Aloysius claims, is because the nuns can’t be “complacent” when it comes to looking out for the children. In keeping with this determination to protect the students in her school, she also tells Sister James to tell her about anything that seems worthy of attention, adding that she herself has a sneaking suspicion that certain things are amiss at St. Nicholas School. After hearing Father Flynn’s sermon about doubt, for instance, she worries that the priest is having troubled thoughts. When Sister James comes to her several days later and says that Father Flynn has taken a special interest in Donald Muller, then, she is quick to act, telling Sister James that they must investigate the situation on their own, since she knows that Monsignor Benedict won’t help them discover whether Flynn is abusing Donald. Despite James’s hesitation, Aloysius calls Flynn to her office and confronts him about the issue. However, Flynn only chastises her for not properly following the chain of command, since she’s supposed to bring such matters up with Monsignor Benedict. Furthermore, Father Flynn denies Sister Aloysius’s accusations. Nevertheless, Aloysius calls a meeting with Mrs. Muller, but even she doesn’t want to get to the bottom of what’s happening between her son and the priest. In her final conversation with Flynn, Aloysius lies by saying that she called his previous parish and discovered that he has a history as a sexual abuser. This enrages him, but before anything bad happens to him, he calls the bishop and secures a new position as a pastor at another school—a turn of events that causes Aloysius to doubt the morality of the Catholic Church.

 

Sister James is a young nun at St. Nicholas School. A person with “sunshine in her heart,” she wants to be the kind of teacher students feel comfortable talking to about their problems. However, her generous disposition also contains a certain amount of innocence and naivety, which Sister Aloysius criticizes, encouraging Sister James to be more authoritative and discerning. Sister James tries to follow these instructions, but she finds it exhausting to be constantly suspicious, since doing so makes her feel less of a connection with God. Still, she agrees to be on the lookout for anything that seems amiss at St. Nicholas School, which is why she tells Sister Aloysius when her student Donald Muller comes to class with alcohol on his breath after spending time alone with Father Flynn. Having noticed Donald’s strange behaviour, James informs Aloysius what happened and is horrified when the older woman immediately draws the conclusion that Flynn is sexually abusing Donald. “I’m not telling you that!” Sister James says. “I’m not even certain what you mean.” Despite her naivety, though, it’s clear to Aloysius that Sister James knows exactly what she means, and though James admits that she misses the “peace of mind” she had before becoming such a suspicious person, she goes along with Aloysius’s idea to confront Father Flynn. At the same time, though, she remains hesitant about accusing Flynn, which is why he’s eventually able to convince her that he’s innocent. And yet, she’s forced to face her own uncertainty when Sister Aloysius tells her that she's proven to herself that Flynn has a history as a sexual abuser (though, importantly, Aloysius doesn't have definitive evidence). This troubles James, as does the fact that Aloysius had to lie to Flynn to get what she believes is the truth. However, Aloysius assures James that sometimes it’s necessary to commit a small sin to do a greater good.

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Mrs. Muller is Donald's mother. When she learns from Sister Aloysius that Father Flynn might be sexually abusing her son, she refuses to do anything about the situation. This is because she thinks doing something to stop Father Flynn will ultimately have a negative impact on Donald’s chances of graduating the eighth grade and getting into a good high school. She also suggests (to Sister Aloysius’s horror) that Father Flynn’s inappropriate attention might not be completely unwanted, since she suspects that Donald is gay. This, it seems, is a large part of why his father beats him, which serves as another reason Mrs. Muller doesn’t want it to get out that Father Flynn might have molested her son, since her husband will likely use this against him. Before leaving Sister Aloysius’s office, Mrs. Muller tells her that certain matters aren’t “black and white,” insisting that Donald will be better off if they simply do nothing—something Sister Aloysius is unwilling to do.​