There is no question that Doubt was a breakthrough critical and popular success for Shanley. Although Shanley had seen his plays produced in New York City for more than twenty years, this was the first work to make the general public aware of him as a playwright. Previously, his claim to fame had been an Oscar for his first movie script, Moonstruck (1987), and as writer and director of the cult favorite Joe versus the Volcano (1990). Within months of its Broadway debut, the play had already taken the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Obie for its previous off-Broadway run, and several Tony Awards.

What captured the attention of the critics, garnering Doubt more serious consideration than other plays about serious, topical issues, is Shanley's finely tuned balance of the moral complexity of the issues he raises. As Charles Isherwood puts it in the New York Times, the...