FAITH HEALING

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This article is about a play. For the religious concept of faith healing, see faith healing.

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Faith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy.
[edit]Synopsis

The play consists of four parts, with a monologue making up each part. The monologues are given, in order, by the faith healer, Francis (Frank) Hardy himself; his wife, Grace; his cockney manager, Teddy, and finally Hardy again.
The monologues tell the story of the faith healer himself, including an incident in a Welsh village in which he cures ten people. Teddy's monologue reveals that Grace Hardy commits suicide, while Frank ponders whether his gift is for real or not. In Frank's second monologue, it is suggested that he is killed near his home after being unable to heal a cripple. He says that he knows he will not be able to heal him and, going to face death, he feels a sense of homecoming. It is not made explicitly clear however, that Frank is actually killed; Friel leaves this up to the reader's interpretation.
The fact that the play does not end definitively typifies a main point of the play; each character gives a different recollection of the same events throughout the page.
[edit]Production history

Faith Healer received its first performance in 1979 on Broadway in a production by José Quintero, with James Mason, Clarissa Kaye and Donal Donnelly. It closed after twenty performances.
It was revived in 1983 at the Vineyard Theatre, directed by Dann Florek, with J. T. Walsh, Kathleen Chalfant and Martin Shakar.
It was again revived in 1994 at the Long Wharf Theatre under the direction of Joe Dowling and starring Donal McCann, Judy Geeson and Ron Cook. The New York Times called the production "incandescent" and recommended it to "any connoisseur of theater".[1]
It was revived again at the Booth Theatre on May 4, 2006. The cast consisted of Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid in a production from the Gate Theatre in Dublin, directed by Jonathan Kent. The Broadway revival received four Tony Award nominations and won one: Best Featured Actor in a Play, Ian McDiarmid.
It is currently being staged as part of the Sydney Festival 2009, as part of a trio of works being performed to honour the eightieth birthday of Friel. The other works are The Yalta Game and Afterplay. It is also currently being staged in the Unicorn Theatre at Berkshire Theatre Festival.[dated info]
It is also currently being staged (October thru December, 2009) at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Joe Dowling is this time taking on the role of Frank Hardy himself.[dated info]
At the time of writing, the trio is being performed at The Gate theatre, Dublin, Ireland. The Gate has premiered many of Friel's works.[dated info]
In February 2011, it is being staged at Bristol Old Vic under the direction of Associate Director Simon Godwin.[dated info]
[edit]External links

Faith Healer at Internet Broadway Database
Details on 2006 Broadway production
This article on a play from the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Categories: 1979 plays | Broadway plays | Plays by Brian Friel | 20th century play stubs