Stella Gonet to Star in the London Revival of John Patrick Shanley's DOUBT, A PARABLE

Stella Gonet is to star in Doubt, A Parable by John Patrick Shanley one of the most acclaimed plays in recent memory.

Playing Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a conservative head nun and school principal who questions a priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student, Stella said: "I was so excited to read this play. It is an amazing, page turning, perfectly paced thriller, with brilliantly written roles. The chance to pull out the complex strands of Sister Aloysius and examine them, that certainty of hers, the shaking of that certainty, it's the sort of challenge you hope to get at least once in your career."

Stella is a hugely experienced stage and screen actress with many starring roles at the National Theatre (Skylight, Racing Demon and Ophelia in Hamlet opposite Daniel Day-Lewis), the RSC and West End (most recently she played Mrs Thatcher in the Olivier Award-winning Handbagged), who became a household name for her lead role in the BBC1 fashion drama The House of Elliott, that ran three years and was watched by 12million people.

Doubt, A Parable, directed by Ché Walker, is to get it's first London revival in 10 years at Southwark Playhouse from Wednesday 6 September to Saturday 30 September.

Press night is Friday 8 September at 7.30pm.

Winning 4 Tony Awards including Best Play, named Best Play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle, Best New Play (Drama Desk Awards) and Outstanding Play (Lucille Lortel Awards). Doubt, A Parable won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The subsequent Hollywood film starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis, received 4 Oscar and 3 BAFTA nominations.

Doubt, A Parable is produced by Making Productions & Graffiti Productions in association with MBL Productions and ProdUse Theatre.

THE STORY

"What do you do when you're not sure?" asks Father Flynn, the progressive and beloved priest at the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx, in his sermon. It's 1964, and things are changing, to the chagrin of rigid principal Sister Aloysius. However, when an unconscionable accusation is levelled against the Father, Sister Aloysius realises that the only way to get justice is to create it herself. And as for the truth of the matter? As Father Flynn says, "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty." In stunning prose, John Patrick Shanley delves into the murky shadows of moral certainty, his characters always balancing on the thin line between truth and consequences.

Doubt, A Parable is an exquisite, potent drama that raises questions and answer none, leaving the audience to grapple with the discomfort of their uncertainties.

THE CAST

Stella Gonet (Sister Aloysius Beauvier)

Trained at Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Theatre includes: Ladi Hasi in In The Depths of Dead Love (The Print Room), Nancy in Human Animals and Hilary in Hope (Royal Court Theatre), T in Handbagged (West End and Tricycle Theatre), Blanche in Before the Party (Almeida Theatre), Women, Power and Politics (Tricycle Theatre), Charlotte in A Further Education and Lemarchand in Hilda (Hampstead Theatre), Mary in Memory of Water (Vaudeville), Charlotte in For Services Rendered and Isabella Bird/Joyce/Mrs Kidd in Top Girls
(Chichester Festival Theatre), Kyra in Skylight (National Theatre & West End), Isabella in Measure for Measure, Greta in After Easter,
Hippolita/Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Angelique/Louise in Divine Gossip, Iraena in Three Sisters, Castiza in The Revenger's Tragedy, Bellamira in The Jew of Malta, Liz in Fashion, Birdie in Heresies and Irena in The Archbishop's Ceiling (RSC), Frances in Racing Demon, Arte I'neal in The Shaughraun, Alice in The Voysey Inheritance, Ophelia in Hamlet, Phil in True Dare Kiss and Command or Promise (National Theatre), Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac (Haymarket Theatre), Platinum Sue in Trafford Tanzi (Mermaid Theatre) and Bernardette in Slab Boy Trilogy (Traverse Theatre & Royal Court). TV includes: Man Down, The Crown, Humans, Siblings, Father Brown, Hacks, Lewis, Mo Mowlem, Holby City, Rebus, Roman Mysteries, Persuasion, Dalziel and Pascoe, Mysterious Murders, Murder in Suburbia, Taggart, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, The Secret, Verdict, Supply & Demand, The Crow Road, Trip Trap (RTS Best Actress Award), The House of Eliott, The Common Pursuit, Heading Home, Down Where the Buffalo Go, and The Shutter Falls. Film includes: How I Live Now, Dirty Bomb, Nicholas Nickleby, Stalin and For Queen and Country.

Clare Latham (Sister James)

Clare trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York (New York University - Tisch School of the Arts) and Drama Centre.
London theatre includes: Danny And The Deep Blue Sea (Southwark Playhouse - Off West End Award Nomination Best Female), the world premiere of Don't Smoke In Bed and UK premiere of Blue Surge (Finborough Theatre), the UK premiere of Tennessee Williams' Green Eyes - The Hotel Plays (Defibrillator at The Grange Hotel), Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, The Talented Mr Ripley, Joan Of Arc, Mörder, Strindberg's Apartment (The Faction Theatre Co.), The Ones (Arts Theatre), Intelligence (Arcola Theatre), Bradley/Chelsea/Nameless (Theatre503), Crave, A Doll's House Revisited, and At The Broken Places (Savio(u)r Theatre Company), The Skin Of Our Teeth and The Typists (LOST Theatre).
Film and TV includes: Suspicion (Discovery),The Films I Hate and Pan Fried. New York theatre includes: Richard III (Orb Theatre), and directing and producing Been So Long by Ché Walker. Clare is a core ensemble member of The Faction Theatre Company.

Jo Martin (Mrs Muller )

Theatre credits include: Trade (The Young Vic) The Rolling Stone (Orange Tree), The Westbridge (Royal Court), Everything Must Go (Soho Theatre), Family Man, Ready or Not, Funny Black Women on the Edge and Eldarado (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Frontline
(Shakespeare's Globe), Noughts and Crosses, Don Carlos and Oronooko (RSC), Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Dende Collective/ Lyric Hammersmith), and Coyote on a Fence (Royal Exchange, Manchester/Duchess Theatre). TV credits include: Johnathan Creek, Our Ex Wife, Still Open all Hours, Together, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Casualty, Top Boy, Wizards vs. Aliens, Holby City, The Culshaw and Stephenson Show, Katy Brand Big Arse Show and The Crouches. Film credits include: NW, A Hundred Streets, Dragonfly, Chalet Girls, 4 3 2 1, Batman Begins and Jolly Boys Last Stand.

Jonathan Chambers (Father Brendan Flynn)

Jonathan trained at the Arts Educational Schools and The Royal Academy of Music. Theatre Includes: Chigger Foot Boys (Tara Arts), Jeremy Corbyn, The Motorcycle Diaries (Waterloo East), Going Up (Dublin LGBT Theatre Festival), Make and Model (Bush Theatre), Macbeth (Shakespeare's Globe), The Lightning Child (Shakespeare's Globe), The Atheist (St James Theatre Studio & The Lion and Unicorn Theatre), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Southwark Playhouse), The Ballad of Benny Junior (Riverside Studios), The Legend of Bella Rosa (Tristan Bates Theatre), Living Under One Roof (Nottingham Concert Hall), Incendiary (Oval House). Film Includes: Throw of a Dice (CVS Films).

John Patrick Shanley (Playwright)

John Patrick Shanley is from The Bronx. His plays include Prodigal Son, Outside Mullingar (Tony nomination), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Savage in Limbo, Italian-American Reconciliation, Welcome to the Moon, Four Dogs and a Bone, Dirty Story, Defiance, and Beggars in the House of Plenty. His theatrical work is performed extensively across the United States and around the world. For his play, Doubt, he received both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the arena of screenwriting, he has nine films to his credit, most recently Doubt, with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis; Doubt, directed by Mr. Shanley, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Other films include Five Corners (Special Jury Prize, Barcelona Film Festival), Alive, Joe Versus the Volcano (which he also directed), and Live From Baghdad for HBO (Emmy nomination). For his script of Moonstruck he received both the Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for best original screenplay. In 2009, The Writers Guild of America awarded
Mr. Shanley the Lifetime Achievement In Writing.

Ché Walker (Director)

Ché Walker (Director) studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy in London (1989-1992) graduating with Distinction and at WAC (1998), and has worked with Edward Bond, Dennis Potter, Philip Ridley, Mark Ravenhill and Ricky Gervais, among others. His first play, Been So Long, premiered at The Royal Court Theatre in 1998 and was runner-up for both the Meyer-Whitworth and the John Whitting Award before being translated and performed in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and Australia. His play, Flesh Wound, premiered at the Royal Court in 2003 and won the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright. Ché won the Peter Brook Award (Mark Marvin Rent Subsidy Award) for his plays Crazy Love and Burnt Up Love. Ché's musical version of Been So Long was a nominee for The Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2009. He was Associate Artist, BushTheatre 2012-2014. Directing includes: His Greatness, Fog, Blue Surge, Etta Jenks (Finborough Theatre), Danny And The Deep Blue Sea (Southwark Playhouse), Little Baby Jesus, Estate Walls, Oval House. Lovesong (ETT Tours), Been So Long The Musical (Young Vic/ English Touring Theatre), Glory Of Living (Battersea Arts Centre). Films include: Been So Long (Shimmer Productions/ UK Film Council), Blaz Gettin Paid (Norma Heyman Films) Love Is Blindness, (Julia Ormond producing for Indicam Production). Writing includes The Lightning Child, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The 8th in collaboration with Paul Heaton, Manchester International Festival, Barbican Centre, UK Tour 2012. Lovesong, Pleasance Dome, Crucible Sheffield, Manchester Royal Exchange, Albany Empire (nominated for Best Book, Music Matters 2010) Been So Long The Musical, Young Vic June (Winner Music Matters Judge's Award, nominated Evening Standard Best Musical, WhatsOnStage.com Best New Musical 2009) The Frontline, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Crazy Love, Paines Plough/Oran Mor. Flesh Wound, Royal Court Theatre (Winner of the 2003 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright, Winner Arts Council Promising Young Writer Award 2003) Been So Long, Royal Court Theatre, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Minnesota. Car Thieves (Translation) National Theatre Studio/ Birmingham.

Making Productions (Producer)

Making Productions produced the critically acclaimed Shutters (Park Theatre) followed by the hugely successful Strindberg play The Father (Trafalgar Studios, co produced with Jagged Fence), Disaster! (Charing Cross Theatre), Bug (Found111, Associate Producer), and West End Bares (Novello Theatre). Current work also includes the 35th anniversary production of Coming Clean, Kevin Elyot's first play and Outlaws to In-laws, written by 7 writers to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wolfenden Report, both at the King's Head Theatre.

Graffiti Productions (Producer)

Graffiti Productions produced the critically acclaimed Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, also by JPS and directed by Che Walker at Southwark Playhouse in 2011. In 2012 and 2013, Graffiti produced The Atheist, by Ronan Noone, directed by Hugh Ross at the Old Red Lion and the St James Studio.

MBL Productions (Associate Producer)

Mary J. Davis and MBL Productions, Inc. New York productions: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812; Disaster! by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick (on and off Broadway, concert in London); Pressing Matters by Jennifer Jasper; Jackob Hoffman's PERSISTENT MEMORY; COAL (confessions of a liar) by David Brian Colbert; James Wesley's UNBROKEN CIRCLE; Susan Charlotte's WHEN TRUTH IS NOT ENOUGH (also in Philadelphia); SHE'S OF A CERTAIN AGE (directed by Antony Marsellis); New York premiere of Tennessee William's THE PRETTY TRAP; THE SHOEMAKER (starring Danny Aiello). Co-producer: James Wesley's ART & SCIENCE (Uptown Theater, Dallas). Upcoming Productions: M. BUTTERFLY with Clive Owens on Broadway Fall 2017.

ProdUse Theatre (Associate Producer)

"Inspiring the world to change itself." ProdUse was born out of the desire of two artists to be creative enablers, to become an ideas network for imaginative people who dare to think differently; telling the untold stories, igniting our innate humanity. ProdUse intends to challenge current systems and look towards a more sustainable, empathic, efficient way of creating inclusive, nourishing dynamic networks for change and playful experience. While theatre is community, it is also communion. It is our policy to have a social-political element to each piece and an appropriate reciprocal engagement with our environment. We dU it differently.

Photo credit: Paul Nicholas Dyke