Faith Healer Archives - North West End UK

If ever there was a play that asked its audience to pay close attention to every word, it is Brian Friel’s Faith Healer. Directed by Roger Beaumont, this production consists of four monologues that weave a gripping tale of faith, memory, and the elusive nature of truth. The stage is set with a backdrop of a giant banner saying ‘The Fantastic Frank Hardy. Faith Healer. One Night Only’. The set changes before each monologue establish the characters’ respective spaces as they recount their versions of a shared past. The story follows Frank Hardy (David Lemkin), the titular faith healer, who travels with Grace (Sarah Sharpe), his ‘mistress’, and Teddy (David Erdos), his manager, across villages in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Frank performs supposed miracles for the locals, but whether he c...

This season the Lyric in Hammersmith are showcasing some of the best classic pieces of British and Irish Theatre for modern audiences. Faith Healer was written by Brian Friel in the 1970s and will appeal mostly to audience’s who lived through or understand the political context of the time. Rachel O’Riordan’s direction is imaginative and powerful use of spacing helps to lift moments in this play. However, the stream of consciousness nature of the monologues in the play could lose some audience members. The key flaw here being that this is a play from another Era and audiences today will only give an awkward chuckle to moments that would have initially intended to fill a room with hysteria. Nonetheless, as Rachel O’Riordan describes ‘some of the best British and Irish talent around’ have be...

Tag: Faith Healer

Faith Healer – The Questors Theatre

Faith Healer – Lyric Hammersmith