The Long and the Short of It

Saw the excellent new play, "Doubt" tonight at the Pasadena Playhouse. Good timing since it won the Pulitzer Prize earlier this week. The story is about a Catholic Priest accused of having wandering hands at a Junior High School in the mid-60s. The play focuses on doubt and certainty and their affects.

Tiny,little Linda Hunt plays the lead role of Sister Aloysius who accuses Father Flynn, played by British actor Jonathan Cake, of inappropriate behavior. There has to be a foot and a half of difference in the height of these two actors. They have some intense scenes of confrontation and their height difference and the staging had a great cinematic effect (think Orson Well's direction of Citizen Kane). The characters literally got bigger and smaller right in front of your eyes.

The same show is playing right now on Broadway too. In New York the very tall Cherry Jones is performing as Sister Aloysius along with similarly tall Brian O'Bryne as Father Flynn. I wonder how different it is to see the play with similarly sized actors in the lead roles.