Sister Aloysius (Rosina Reynolds), principal of St. Nicholas Catholic school in the Bronx, is old school, relying on authority and discipline. Father Flynn (Douglas Roberts), who doubles as the boys’ basketball coach, favors a more accessible, Vatican II approach, inventing stories to illustrate his sermon points and not hesitating to reach out to students.

It’s this last that concerns Sister Aloysius, who at the beginning of school saw him touch a boy’s wrist. She thinks he’s a pedophile, and seeks further corroboration.

Young Sister James (Amanda Sitton) provides it when she reports that Donald Muller, a new 8th grader, returned to class from a private meeting in the rectory with Father Flynn acting strangely and with alcohol on his breath. Donald, the school’s first black student, is an altar boy.

A meeting with Mrs. Muller (Monique Gaffney), the boy’s mother, fails to give Sister Aloysius the ally she seeks, but that doesn’t stop her; though she lacks proof, she sets out to force Father Flynn’s confession and/or transfer. She’s been around long enough to know that the testosterone-laden church hierarchy is not likely to expel him on her accusation, but she at least wants Father Flynn away from her students.

Will she succeed? Should she? Can suspicion ever be enough to risk ruining someone’s career? When pedophilia is at issue, can one afford to wait for incontrovertible proof? How does job shuffling solve the problem?

John Patrick Shanley’s Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt: A Parable plays through February 8 at San Diego Repertory Theatre. Todd Salovey directs.

Doubt: A Parable plays San Diego for the third time in three years. In 2006, a touring version of the Broadway show played here. Last month the film version opened, and now the Rep gives us the most satisfying production yet seen of this riveting play.

The more intimate Lyceum Space Theater gives this production an advantage the other two versions did not have: the claustrophobic, boxed-in feeling of adults grappling with a difficulty topic. The play’s power is diluted in a cavernous house like Civic Theatre, and the film added the unwarranted distractions of other nuns and children.

The Rep also has by far the best cast. Reynolds is terrific as the no-nonsense Sister Aloysius, every expression, gesture and movement calibrated to convey her rigidity and her disdain for the man she feels has dishonored his vows and endangered the children.

Roberts conveys the kind of priest everyone hopes for – personable, humorous, compassionate. Could it be a pose?

Sitton beautifully conveys Sister James’ conflict: she wants to do right (as defined by her boss) and succeed as a teacher, but she also wants to communicate with her students on a more than authoritarian level.

Gaffney’s Mrs. Muller only has one scene, but it’s a juicy one and she wrings it for all it’s worth – and that’s a considerable amount of emotion and commonsense negotiation.

The theater is marketing this as “the most celebrated American play of the 21st century.” I don’t know how that would be measured (Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia won more Tonys), but Doubt: A Parable is surely one of the best plays to come down the pike in a very long time. And the Rep has done a splendid job of mounting it.

Doubt: a Parable runs through Sunday, Feb. 8, at San Diego Repertory Theatre. Shows Wednesday and Sunday at 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinee Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call 619-544-1000 or visit www.sdrep.org.

That bad boy Nero’s back, and does he ever need a PR makeover. Though the infamous Roman emperor probably got a bad rap for fiddling while Rome burned, he certainly has killed lots of people willy-nilly (including his wife and mother). And he probably hasn’t done the cause of civilization much good with those spectacularly bloody daily exercises in gladiatorial battle and brutality in the Hippodrome.

But now the rapacious ruler, who has spent extraordinary amounts of time trying to satiate his omnivorous sexual appetites, is thinking of his legacy. He’s aware of public disdain, and wants the masses to love him.

What to do? Playwright Amy Freed speculates that the emperor commissions fictional, aging playwright Scribonius (John Vickery) to write a “bio-drama” to polish up Nero’s tarnished image. The play, to be called “Nero, the Just and Good Emperor,” will be presented during the first annual Neronia festival, where Nero will emcee, Elvis-like. Poetic license is encouraged, if not demanded.

The world premiere of Freed’s You, Nero plays through January 25 at South Coast Repertory Theatre. Sharon Ott directs.

OK, it’s a silly idea, and Freed obliges with many silly and/or corny jokes, but she also asks a serious question: what does the popularity of reality shows (like gladiators fighting to the death, shows like “An American Family” playing out the real-life disintegration of a marriage on the air or “American Idol” contestants singing for what will almost certainly be scathing insults) say about a culture?

Danny Scheie’s Nero with that androgynous voice struts around in hilarious form, utter self-involvement on display. If you didn’t know what a murdering s.o.b. he was, you could almost be amused by his childish narcissism.

Freed has a way with captivating characters, and she throws in several here. Nero’s mother Agrippina (Lori Larsen) is an ambitious piece of work in her own right, having sweet-talked Claudius into naming Nero his successor over Claudius’ own son Britannicus.

Nero’s mistress Poppaea (Caralyn Kozlowski) plays the blonde bimbo role to the hilt. SCR regulars Hal Landon, Jr. and Richard Doyle play Nero’s real-life advisers Burrus and Seneca as well as other fictional characters.

You, Nero has its moments in this handsome production, but the approach seems scattershot and lacking in focus. Characters and incidents come and go like a series of skits slapped together, with little cohesion. But you have to giggle when Poppaea turns on the charm with a Palinesque wink and says, “I know how to work a crowd.”

You, Nero plays through Sunday, Jan. 25, at South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa. Shows Tuesday through Sunday at 7:45 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call 714-708-5555 or visit www.scr.org.

An offstage car crash opens Anne Meara’s After-Play, followed by the struggling entrance of two older couples into a tony but curiously deserted Manhattan restaurant.

Waiter Raziel (Rachel Bishop) controls the lights with the wave of a hand and serves the quartet with the proper attitude and apparent efficiency – only fluffing one order, despite not using a pad. From this you can conclude that Something Is Up.

Show-biz veterans Renee (Yvonne Lindroth Silva) and Phil (Michael Thomas Tower) haven’t seen old friends Marty (Ed Eigner) and Terry (Lucy Ann Albert) in three years. The first order of the evening is to disagree about the play they’ve just seen: Marty and Terry talk of transcendence and epiphany; Renee and Phil complain about manipulation, shtick and devices.

Then the tone turns a bit more serious, as they move on to other aspects of their lives – kids, aging, marriage. Phil feels a flop as a father. Terry wants more spice in her sex life. Marty has back problems. Through it all, Renee (the loud one) keeps the conversational ball rolling with the one-liner jabs you expect of Meara; unfortunately, here they most often come across as bitchy and mean-spirited rather than amusing.

There is another layer to this play: Meara has made this a group of old song-and-dance performers, and a bit of that shtick is inserted as well. This homage to vaudeville and “picture palaces” (a camp song performed by Renee and Terry and a few steps by the others) is endearing, but seems more stuck in than integral to the plot.

Another old friend, Matt (Tom Delaney), pulls up a chair toward the end and brings perspective to the quartet’s complaints when he describes his own family crisis.

Silva gets the best lines, and she makes the most of them. Albert charms with her upbeat attitude and singing. Tower convinces as Phil, and Eigner is lovable as Marty. Delaney’s Matt is my favorite character; he’s not caught up in the artifice of the theater, but suffering through his own real life situation.

After-Play is a difficult piece to mount: it’s almost all talk, the only action an occasional trip to the restroom for one or another character. Though now and then a line like Phil’s “I feel like an alien without a map” gives the audience something to think about, mostly this comes across as a less than fascinating family dinner.

But eventually the fat lady sings, and the quartet goes out into the next world.

After-Play runs through Saturday, Feb. 7, at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinee Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call 619-422-7787 or visit www.onstageplayhouse.org.

Four wildly different plays by young playwrights were selected for full production and four others for staged readings in the 24th annual Plays by Young Writers festival, onstage through January 25 at the Old Town Theatre.

Receiving full productions are 16-year-old Laignee Barron’s If I Were Your Superhero, 16-year-old Jacob Axelrad’s The Stationmaster; 18-year-old Colette La Pointe’s A+B ? AB, and 17-year-old Emily Reit’s Prom Night.

In Superhero, lonely teenager Kylie (Caroline Rose Markham) befriends a 10-year-old autistic boy. The longest play of the evening, Superhero also contains the acting find of the night: 9-year-old Andrew Poole as the autistic Guthrie. This is Poole’s acting debut, but you’d never guess that from the confidence and maturity he exudes here.

Barron shows a gift for dialogue, and though the play seems a bit long and somewhat redundant (I would end it when Kylie goes to be with her brother, since there’s little question what will happen later), I’d like to see more from this promising young playwright.

Axelrad’s The Stationmaster, with its magical, mysterious plot, gets my vote as most intriguing play of the night. You’ll never find a Mr. Dunning (well played by Javier Guerrero) at the local Santa Fe station, but perhaps we’d all be better off if he did exist.

La Pointe’s A+B ? AB is poignant but a bit puzzling in concept. Julie (Rhianna Basore), a young wife grappling with the issue of parenthood, chooses a car trip to an unknown location to make her feelings known to husband Nicholas (Steven Lone). I get the symbolism, but the action doesn’t ring quite true to me.

Prom Night is an absurdist romp that gives two actors with great comic timing (Ruff Yeager and Karson St. John) a chance to show off, and the audience a chance to guffaw at the hilarious antics of a high school girl’s parents from hell tormenting her prom date. These people are batshit crazy, but they are great fun to watch.

Plays by Young Writers ends this Sunday (January 25) and there are four staged readings in addition to these full productions to see. These young writers deserve your support. Check the schedule at (http://www.mycommunitytickets.com/organization_info.asp?orgid=1018) and go see these plays. Call (619) 239-8222 for tickets.