Faith Healer
Playwright: Brian Friel Director: Lyndsey Turner Donmar Warehouse, London WC2 (0844-871 7624) Until 20 August Running time: 2hrs 20mins (including interval)
Brian Friel’s haunting masterpiece is a tough play to pull off, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. It’s made up of four monologues: the first and last delivered by Frank Hardy, the itinerant Irish “healer” of the title, who has made a living of sorts touring the fringes of Wales and Scotland. The other two, which tell different versions of Frank’s stories, are given by his wife, Grace, and his Cockney manager, Teddy. If performed “in a portentous fashion”, the “enigmatic evening has the potential to be purgatorial; as delivered in Lyndsey Turner’s beautifully measured and nuanced production, though, Friel’s lyrically written chamber piece delivers shivers of quasi-spiritual ecstasy”. The great Irish dramatist, who died last October, would be “raising a glass in thanks” to all involved.
Friel’s “magical” play can be interpreted in any number of ways, said Michael Billington in The Guardian: “as a metaphor for the plight of the artist, as a Pirandellian study of the elusiveness of reality, as a return to the classic Irish theme of exile and homecoming”. What struck me most, watching this “immaculate” revival, was how this modern classic (first staged in 1979) contradicts theatre’s recent trend towards the primacy of the visual over the “power of the word”. Stephen Dillane’s Frank, with his shaggy beard, “could be a vagrant wandering the Irish countryside, or an Old Testament prophet”, said Sarah Hemming in the FT. He’s a compelling storyteller, “hooking you in with his softspoken, self-deprecating delivery”. Gina Mckee gives a quiet, unshowy performance as Grace, but behind her “tidy demeanour is a deeply damaged woman breaking down”.
In my view, Dillane’s performance is much too understated, said Alice Saville in The Independent. His Frank lacks the magnetic, “whiskeysoaked power” and “wild charisma” of a man capable of convincing strangers that their ancient wounds are healed. The best thing about the show is actually Ron Cook’s “stonking” performance as loyal manager Teddy, as he “pours out hilarious anecdotes of performing pigeons” and the like over bottles of brown ale.