Review: Faith Healer
Image: Colin Friels in Faith Healer. Photo: Brett Boardman
The Irish love to talk, so it’s just as well they’re good at it. Case in point: Faith Healer, now on at Belvoir St Theatre – an enthralling feast of language by eminent Irish writer Brian Friel.
In this nuanced piece of storytelling, Friel has the same narrative re-told in four successive monologues given by the three characters involved. Each tells the shared memoir from their own perspective, turning and tilting the story to show different angles, hidden details.
Francis Hardy (Colin Friels) is the faith healer of the title. His healing power is, at best, sporadic, but he tours his show relentlessly, seeking the miracle that will validate him. Grace (Alison Whyte) is his common law wife, suffering his indifference and neglect because of her irrepressible devotion to him. Teddy (Pip Miller) is the life-long manager who sacrificed a potentially successful career out of loyalty to Hardy – or was there another reason? Hardy gives the first and last monologues; by the end we have a better idea of the real story and we see and hear him differently.
This production is directed by the venerable Judy Davis, who seems to have squeezed every last drop of skill from an already talented cast. Friels is absorbing as Hardy. Whyte’s heart-wrenching vocal performance is enhanced by the physicality she also brings. Miller is convivial and tragic in equal parts as Teddy the manager.
It’s not all gloomy – there are some very funny moments. It is however, a play for lovers of words and it does require focus. The script is dense and fast and the Irish accents, authentic and necessary though they be, do call for extra attentive listening.
But you will be rewarded for the effort. (RB)
Until Nov 27. Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills. Tickets & info: www.belvoir.com.au
BY RITA BRATOVICH
