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Faith Healer
The writing is beautiful, supple, rhythmical, charged with the slow, sure throb of despair and enchantment...Brian Friel is the most profound and poetic of contemporary Irish dramatists." (Observer). Throughout the remote and forgotten corners of the British Isles, Frank Hardy offers the promise of redemption to the sick and the suffering. But his is an unreliable gift, a dangerous calling which brings him into conflict with his wife Grace and his manager Teddy. Their competing accounts of past events reveal the fragility of memory and the necessity of stories as a means of survival. Brian Friel's Faith Healer was first produced at the Longacre Theatre, New York, in April 1979 and was revived at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in June 2016. "The night of Faith Healer is one that still blazes in recollection for me, as religious experiences of art do. And it became a sort of touchstone for me in understanding not only Mr. Friel's work with a depth I hadn't appreciated before but also for defining the elusiveness of great art and the pain of the artist who creates it." (Ben Brantley, New York Times).
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Brian Friel
124 books139 followersBrian Friel is a playwright and, more recently, director of his own works from Ireland who now resides in County Donegal.
Friel was born in Omagh County Tyrone, the son of Patrick "Paddy" Friel, a primary school teacher and later a borough councillor in Derry, and Mary McLoone, postmistress of Glenties, County Donegal (Ulf Dantanus provides the most detail regarding Friel's parents and grandparents, see Books below). He received his education at St. Columb's College in Derry and the seminary at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth (1945-48) from which he received his B.A., then he received his teacher's training at St. Mary's Training College in Belfast, 1949-50. He married Anne Morrison in 1954, with whom he has four daughters and one son; they remain married. From 1950 until 1960, he worked as a Maths teacher in the Derry primary and intermediate school system, until taking leave in 1960 to live off his savings and pursue a career as writer. In 1966, the Friels moved from 13 Malborough Street, Derry to Muff, County Donegal, eventually settling outside Greencastle, County Donegal.
He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1987 and served through 1989. In 1989, BBC Radio launched a "Brian Friel Season", a series devoted a six-play season to his work, the first living playwright to be so distinguished. In 1999 (April-August), Friel's 70th birthday was celebrated in Dublin with the Friel Festival during which ten of his plays were staged or presented as dramatic readings throughout Dublin; in conjunction with the festival were a conference, National Library exhibition, film screenings, outreach programs, pre-show talks, and the launching of a special issue of The Irish University Review devoted to the playwright; in 1999, he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Times.
On 22 January 2006 Friel was presented with a gold Torc by President Mary McAleese in recognition of the fact that the members of Aosdána have elected him a Saoi. Only five members of Aosdána can hold this honour at any one time and Friel joined fellow Saoithe Louis leBrocquy, Benedict Kiely (d. 2007), Seamus Heaney and Anthony Cronin. On acceptance of the gold Torc, Friel quipped, "I knew that being made a Saoi, really getting this award, is extreme unction; it is a final anointment--Aosdana's last rites."
In November 2008, Queen's University of Belfast announced its intention to build a new theatre complex and research center to be named The Brian Friel Theatre and Centre for Theatre Research.
Friel was born in Omagh County Tyrone, the son of Patrick "Paddy" Friel, a primary school teacher and later a borough councillor in Derry, and Mary McLoone, postmistress of Glenties, County Donegal (Ulf Dantanus provides the most detail regarding Friel's parents and grandparents, see Books below). He received his education at St. Columb's College in Derry and the seminary at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth (1945-48) from which he received his B.A., then he received his teacher's training at St. Mary's Training College in Belfast, 1949-50. He married Anne Morrison in 1954, with whom he has four daughters and one son; they remain married. From 1950 until 1960, he worked as a Maths teacher in the Derry primary and intermediate school system, until taking leave in 1960 to live off his savings and pursue a career as writer. In 1966, the Friels moved from 13 Malborough Street, Derry to Muff, County Donegal, eventually settling outside Greencastle, County Donegal.
He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1987 and served through 1989. In 1989, BBC Radio launched a "Brian Friel Season", a series devoted a six-play season to his work, the first living playwright to be so distinguished. In 1999 (April-August), Friel's 70th birthday was celebrated in Dublin with the Friel Festival during which ten of his plays were staged or presented as dramatic readings throughout Dublin; in conjunction with the festival were a conference, National Library exhibition, film screenings, outreach programs, pre-show talks, and the launching of a special issue of The Irish University Review devoted to the playwright; in 1999, he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Times.
On 22 January 2006 Friel was presented with a gold Torc by President Mary McAleese in recognition of the fact that the members of Aosdána have elected him a Saoi. Only five members of Aosdána can hold this honour at any one time and Friel joined fellow Saoithe Louis leBrocquy, Benedict Kiely (d. 2007), Seamus Heaney and Anthony Cronin. On acceptance of the gold Torc, Friel quipped, "I knew that being made a Saoi, really getting this award, is extreme unction; it is a final anointment--Aosdana's last rites."
In November 2008, Queen's University of Belfast announced its intention to build a new theatre complex and research center to be named The Brian Friel Theatre and Centre for Theatre Research.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
March 29, 2019
When I was reading Faith Healer, this script got two distinctions from me: (1) being one of the most depressing things I have ever read, and (2) probably being the first play I've encountered where I actually wondered whether or not it would work on stage as well as it does on the page. I mean, it must work, because it's seen a number of illustrious and well-reviewed revivals over the years, but it reads comfortably like a novella, and if you are planning on seeing it on stage (in the upcoming Los Angeles production, for example) I would highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the script first, because I imagine a lot could be lost in translation to the unfamiliar viewer.
Written in four monologues, this play tells the story of faith healer Frank Hardy. Frank's two monologues (each about ten pages long) open and close the play, and in between we also hear from Frank's wife, or maybe his mistress, Grace, and his stage manager Teddy. Together they chronicle the downfall of Frank's faith healing act, but less focus is given to the narrative itself than the relationship between these three characters and the way it has disintegrated over time.
This play's magic is all in the details. If you're reading or watching this just trying to glean the overall gist, so much is going to be lost. Friel expertly navigates three conflicting accounts of the same events; each character tells essentially the same stories, with at times heartbreaking variations. The biggest punch to the gut was after hearing Grace's account of her newborn baby dying, and hearing how Frank fashioned a makeshift cross for the grave, we then get Teddy's account that Frank was nowhere to be found when Grace went into labor, and how Teddy was the one to build the cross and say a prayer over the grave. The fallibility of memory is probably one of my favorite themes in literature and when it's rendered with the same kind of subtlety as it is here, it's hard not to be deeply affected and unsettled. The other salient theme running through this play is Frank's unreliable gift for faith healing - with noticeable parallels to artists' creativity, the whole play reads as an allegory. Can truth exist in a vacuum or is it always shaped by the stories we tell?
If you aren't someone who ordinarily enjoys reading play scripts, I'd still recommend checking this out if it interests you, as again, it reads very much like a novella. Friel's writing is sharp and lyrical and this leaves no question as to why he's one of the most influential playwrights to come out of Northern Ireland.
Written in four monologues, this play tells the story of faith healer Frank Hardy. Frank's two monologues (each about ten pages long) open and close the play, and in between we also hear from Frank's wife, or maybe his mistress, Grace, and his stage manager Teddy. Together they chronicle the downfall of Frank's faith healing act, but less focus is given to the narrative itself than the relationship between these three characters and the way it has disintegrated over time.
This play's magic is all in the details. If you're reading or watching this just trying to glean the overall gist, so much is going to be lost. Friel expertly navigates three conflicting accounts of the same events; each character tells essentially the same stories, with at times heartbreaking variations. The biggest punch to the gut was after hearing Grace's account of her newborn baby dying, and hearing how Frank fashioned a makeshift cross for the grave, we then get Teddy's account that Frank was nowhere to be found when Grace went into labor, and how Teddy was the one to build the cross and say a prayer over the grave. The fallibility of memory is probably one of my favorite themes in literature and when it's rendered with the same kind of subtlety as it is here, it's hard not to be deeply affected and unsettled. The other salient theme running through this play is Frank's unreliable gift for faith healing - with noticeable parallels to artists' creativity, the whole play reads as an allegory. Can truth exist in a vacuum or is it always shaped by the stories we tell?
If you aren't someone who ordinarily enjoys reading play scripts, I'd still recommend checking this out if it interests you, as again, it reads very much like a novella. Friel's writing is sharp and lyrical and this leaves no question as to why he's one of the most influential playwrights to come out of Northern Ireland.
August 21, 2020
ف:
"از این به بعد تنها کاری که دارم، دوست داشتن توست ." حتی اگر اشتباه باشد، حتی اگر احمقانه، از روی ضعف، یا ترس یا هرچیز اشتباه دیگری باشد؛ هرگز از تو دست نخواهم کشید.
تو میتوانی من را از زندگیات بیرون کنی، اما نخواهی توانست یادم را از لحظههایت و خاطره ام را از خاطراتت پاک کنی. من آنجا هستم. خواهم ماند. به تارهای قلبت لحیم شدهام. با هر ضربان، در رگهایت میگردم و خودم را یادآوری میکنم. رهایی از ممکن نیست. از جانت میکاهم و روحت را خواهم فرسود. همیشه ، هر لحظه. من تو را اینچنین دوست خواهم داشت ...
_______________
یک صندلی ، یک میز ، یک پوستر تبلیغاتی، بطری های آبجو. چهار مونولوگ از سه شخصیت که هر یک به توصیف یک اتفاق خاص از منظر متفاوت میپردازند. در نهایت بیننده نمایش خود باید منطق داستان را به شکل درست بسازد و شکافهای گفته نشده را پر کند، و به این نتیجه برسد چه کسی حقیقت را میگوید.
داستان نمایش، بازخوانی یک شب خاص است. و همچنین داستان های فرعی از چگونگی شکل گیری ارتباط سه شخصیت اصلی داستان . بعد از این که هر شخصیت ، ماجرای آن شب را از زاویه دید خودش بازگو کرد ، فکر کردم این اتفاق چه عجیب و چه آشناست؛ این داشتن زاویه دید شخصی و حق به جانب بودن. ایمان داشتن به اصالت داستان خود و آنرا منحصرا حقیقت محض دانستن.
ما انسانها عجیب به هم شباهت داریم ، حتی در خودخواهی ها و تنگ نظری هایمان. در عشق ورزی ،در حسد، در تمام ترس ها ، جنون و ضعف هایمان. و با اینحال بوالهوسی نیست که خودمان را منحصر به فرد و شگفت انگیز میدانیم؟
"از این به بعد تنها کاری که دارم، دوست داشتن توست ." حتی اگر اشتباه باشد، حتی اگر احمقانه، از روی ضعف، یا ترس یا هرچیز اشتباه دیگری باشد؛ هرگز از تو دست نخواهم کشید.
تو میتوانی من را از زندگیات بیرون کنی، اما نخواهی توانست یادم را از لحظههایت و خاطره ام را از خاطراتت پاک کنی. من آنجا هستم. خواهم ماند. به تارهای قلبت لحیم شدهام. با هر ضربان، در رگهایت میگردم و خودم را یادآوری میکنم. رهایی از ممکن نیست. از جانت میکاهم و روحت را خواهم فرسود. همیشه ، هر لحظه. من تو را اینچنین دوست خواهم داشت ...
_______________
یک صندلی ، یک میز ، یک پوستر تبلیغاتی، بطری های آبجو. چهار مونولوگ از سه شخصیت که هر یک به توصیف یک اتفاق خاص از منظر متفاوت میپردازند. در نهایت بیننده نمایش خود باید منطق داستان را به شکل درست بسازد و شکافهای گفته نشده را پر کند، و به این نتیجه برسد چه کسی حقیقت را میگوید.
داستان نمایش، بازخوانی یک شب خاص است. و همچنین داستان های فرعی از چگونگی شکل گیری ارتباط سه شخصیت اصلی داستان . بعد از این که هر شخصیت ، ماجرای آن شب را از زاویه دید خودش بازگو کرد ، فکر کردم این اتفاق چه عجیب و چه آشناست؛ این داشتن زاویه دید شخصی و حق به جانب بودن. ایمان داشتن به اصالت داستان خود و آنرا منحصرا حقیقت محض دانستن.
ما انسانها عجیب به هم شباهت داریم ، حتی در خودخواهی ها و تنگ نظری هایمان. در عشق ورزی ،در حسد، در تمام ترس ها ، جنون و ضعف هایمان. و با اینحال بوالهوسی نیست که خودمان را منحصر به فرد و شگفت انگیز میدانیم؟
March 30, 2022
A faith healer, his wife and his manager alternately describe significant events in their shared lives. Their memories vary, but gradually we get to piece together a profound and sad story. The play is brilliantly constructed and the acting in this production is wonderful. I saw the play starring Ralph Fiennes years ago, and this cast was at least as good. This audiobook is available free in Audible Plus.
February 18, 2015
When I recently read Donal Ryan's The Spinning Heart - a novel which consists of a sequence of monologues - I was disappointed because of the monotone which was maintained across almost all of the voices, male and female; young and old. What a contrast to Brian Friel's 'Faith Healer', in which four monologues are delivered by three characters (Frank Hardy, the faith healer speaks at the beginning and the end).
Here each voice is as distinctive as it is compelling and with much of the detail implied or advanced by inference. Precise attention is paid to the cadence and rhythm of language, beginning with Franks prayer-like recital of Welsh towns he has visited to 'perform' his faith healing; the complicated knot of belief - there and not there -that surpasses all understanding and that one night heals ten people. From Frank we are passed on to Grace (each name carefully chosen). Grace, who has endured a great deal through what was once, for her, the peculiar faith that is a part of love, only to find that faith become a wound that was beyond anybody's healing power. The next perspective is that of Teddy, Frank's agent who leads us, ever closer, through the same scenes of stark misery; his own and that of his two travelling companions. To finish we return to Frank who must now face his nemesis.
Because it is a play 'Faith Healer' is rarely mentioned as one of the great examples of Irish writing. But it is. It is as readable as any novel, and better than most.
Here each voice is as distinctive as it is compelling and with much of the detail implied or advanced by inference. Precise attention is paid to the cadence and rhythm of language, beginning with Franks prayer-like recital of Welsh towns he has visited to 'perform' his faith healing; the complicated knot of belief - there and not there -that surpasses all understanding and that one night heals ten people. From Frank we are passed on to Grace (each name carefully chosen). Grace, who has endured a great deal through what was once, for her, the peculiar faith that is a part of love, only to find that faith become a wound that was beyond anybody's healing power. The next perspective is that of Teddy, Frank's agent who leads us, ever closer, through the same scenes of stark misery; his own and that of his two travelling companions. To finish we return to Frank who must now face his nemesis.
Because it is a play 'Faith Healer' is rarely mentioned as one of the great examples of Irish writing. But it is. It is as readable as any novel, and better than most.
October 4, 2011
When people ask me, "What is your favorite book?" I always tell them Faith Healer by Brian Friel. I first read this play before I saw the 2006 performance of it at the Booth Theater in NYC. There is something about this play that struck me at the time I read it, and having re-read it several times and writing my MA thesis on it, I still haven't lost that feeling. Maybe it's because I see a little of myself in each character, maybe it's because I enjoy pondering how memory works and how so much of who we are and how we relate to the world depends on how we remember and comprehend what we experience, and this play seems to mimic on a smaller scale that experience of memory and how memory creates reality.
The characters' fragmented stories allow the audience to piece together their own version of what happened and therefore create their own story. This in turn acts not only as a way to involve the audience in the play’s disjointed memory and create a fifth monologue, but also makes each audience member realize what it is he/she needs--whether it be a definite conclusion, an affirmation, a happy ending, or something never-ending. Faith Healer shows how “truths” can be created by art through the artist, and when reality and fantasy meet (if the two can even be separated), how the imagination affects the way an individual sees both. Belief in our imaginings (whether we perceive them as real or fantastical) involves trust and faith, which can both enlighten and disillusion us.
The characters' fragmented stories allow the audience to piece together their own version of what happened and therefore create their own story. This in turn acts not only as a way to involve the audience in the play’s disjointed memory and create a fifth monologue, but also makes each audience member realize what it is he/she needs--whether it be a definite conclusion, an affirmation, a happy ending, or something never-ending. Faith Healer shows how “truths” can be created by art through the artist, and when reality and fantasy meet (if the two can even be separated), how the imagination affects the way an individual sees both. Belief in our imaginings (whether we perceive them as real or fantastical) involves trust and faith, which can both enlighten and disillusion us.
July 9, 2016
Every time I read one of Friel's plays, I insist that he may be the most exciting discovery of my deeper foray into Irish literature. His settings and characters are so real. The structure of this particular play is odd, as there isn't really much in the way of activity. On the stage, the play features little more than three people standing on stage and telling their own versions of the central story. It's become a classic trope - the various versions of the story do not match, and the audience must make decisions on which versions to believe. But the trope is given a fresh treatment as each version of events ends with a different tragedy - their perspectives on the same events are not actually perceived by the characters to place these events in the same framework or with the same importance. Each story is both familiar and unique, like deja vu with a different purpose and interpretation. The end rests hard with the reader, and thanks to the short length, the book is eminently re-readable.
October 29, 2012
I love this play. I could read it over and over. And I have. I performed this play in NYC. I played Grace. The play is divided into parts where each charcter tells their side of the story. Grace is The Faith Healer's woman. She has such a heartwrenching part and the beauty of the language almost plays the part for you.
There is a baby. There is the faith healer. There is Grace and there is the manager. The manager reminds me of the Old Man in Fool for Love, but the manager has a much bigger part. He tells the truth.
I don't want to give the plot away. It unravels so delictely, so ferociously. It is fragile and abusive.
One of my absolute favorite plays ever.
There is a baby. There is the faith healer. There is Grace and there is the manager. The manager reminds me of the Old Man in Fool for Love, but the manager has a much bigger part. He tells the truth.
I don't want to give the plot away. It unravels so delictely, so ferociously. It is fragile and abusive.
One of my absolute favorite plays ever.
November 28, 2007
You want to read a play that offers itself like a novella and still retains its dramatic tautness, this is the one. Brian Friel is one of the great Irish playwrights. This piece is written in four monologues for three characters. I've had the pleasure of doing the play, and it remains one of the quintessential actor's challenges -- to hold the audience all by yourself. I revel in this storytelling.
October 4, 2020
I first watched the play, virtually thanks to Old Vic's screening of the play starring Michael Sheen, Indira Varma and David Threlfall as the Faith Healer, his "mistress" Grace and their stage manager Teddy respectively.
I was blown away by their charismatic and compelling performances, and also by the structure of the play. There are no conversations, only narrations (in the form of monologues) by unreliable narrators, people recounting incidents they were a part of themselves. This difference in perspective provokes us as an audience, to engage with the dialogue more attentively, almost as a detective would, to tease out the absolute truth from three different subjective ones.
I read the play primarily because I missed watching the first scene (with Frank) and perhaps at a subliminal level, wanted to fully understand the play so I would feel like I had spent my money wisely :p
Another aspect of the play that I enjoyed was observing the character's perceptions of one another. How miscommunication can occur even when one assumes they are being perfectly coherent. It is something I will keep in mind for conversations to come.
This '"memory play" challenges us to question what is truly of significance at the end of the day- facts or feelings? Somehow, one can not seem to exist with the other, particularly in emotionally charged moments. Perhaps then, what we FEEL is a better judge of the situation than any fact that could hold up in court.
I was blown away by their charismatic and compelling performances, and also by the structure of the play. There are no conversations, only narrations (in the form of monologues) by unreliable narrators, people recounting incidents they were a part of themselves. This difference in perspective provokes us as an audience, to engage with the dialogue more attentively, almost as a detective would, to tease out the absolute truth from three different subjective ones.
I read the play primarily because I missed watching the first scene (with Frank) and perhaps at a subliminal level, wanted to fully understand the play so I would feel like I had spent my money wisely :p
Another aspect of the play that I enjoyed was observing the character's perceptions of one another. How miscommunication can occur even when one assumes they are being perfectly coherent. It is something I will keep in mind for conversations to come.
This '"memory play" challenges us to question what is truly of significance at the end of the day- facts or feelings? Somehow, one can not seem to exist with the other, particularly in emotionally charged moments. Perhaps then, what we FEEL is a better judge of the situation than any fact that could hold up in court.
May 7, 2021
I'm honestly not sure how a staging of this would play out. I'm very curious to see how it would be done. Irish playwrights are so brutal and heartbreaking and just tap all the way into the very depth of human fallibility.
September 30, 2023
fucking wow
every image seared into my brain the colours of it all absolutely brilliant
every image seared into my brain the colours of it all absolutely brilliant
December 15, 2021
Exceptional play by the great Irishman himself Mister Friel. The monologues are filled with heartache, sadness and vulnerability. I will be seeing this play being performed at the Abbey Theatre directed by by the same man, Joe Dowling 41 years later. Aidan Gillen as Frank, Niamh Cusack as Grace and Nigel Lindsay as Teddy.
Must read for lovers of the theatre. Hopefully you get to see this lost gem on stage one day.
Enjoy.
KB
Must read for lovers of the theatre. Hopefully you get to see this lost gem on stage one day.
Enjoy.
KB
January 18, 2024
Several touchstone events, minor differences in each description, and yet the desire to surrender oneself completely to each interpretation. It’s rare to come across writing so effortlessly convincing, and rarer still to be persuaded of three incompatible memories. What a show off!
August 4, 2024
friel 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
July 8, 2020
چینش فوقالعادهی پازل اطلاعات و تکمیل جوانب مختلف وقایع در تکگوییها برای توصیف ماسکی که مدام روی صورت آدمهاست. فوقالعاده 👌🏻
ترجمهی کار به مراتب از سطح خود کار پایینتر است.
ترجمهی کار به مراتب از سطح خود کار پایینتر است.
January 5, 2020
For Brian Friel, there's just two things -- relationship and art -- against a backdrop of life's 'atrophying terror and the maddening questions.' Only through relationship and homecoming do the 'questions' become silent. I read "Faith Healer" in the 1984 "Selected Plays Brian Friel" because I wondered why it was picked to go on stage this year at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The story is of a tinker-like trio, Frank, wife Gracie, and promoter, Teddy, who travel from rural town to town in Wales, Scotland and Ireland to put on faith-healing performances. The drama is of desperation and accompanying alcohol delivered in soliloquies . . . . really, storytelling . . . in stream-of-consciousness style punctuated by episodes of tragedy told without the possibility of redemption. The fierce despair of paralyzed 'infinite patience, of profound resignation' is the bell he is tolling. While raised Catholic in war-torn and angry northern Ireland's Derry, Friel is said to felt 'at home' in Donegal where his inner world of hurt was set free. It is said he writes poetically of this feeling of continual exile. He was a family man himself, married for a long time with children. He wrote of pain and it's brief relief. My instinct: people who live on islands have to get off of them.
April 7, 2013
When I was in Ireland in 2006, I saw "The Faith Healer" played by Ralph Fiennes. It was pure luck as the play had been sold out for weeks, and we happened to show up at the theatre for a matinee where tickets were unclaimed. I was familiar with some of Friel's other works and expected good things. However, this play blew me away. It was the most meaningful audience experience that I've ever had.
February 25, 2013
it changed my life.
May 14, 2017
How did he make up these characters? Had he experience with these types? Genius.
February 2, 2025
Very good, but not as brilliant as I had hoped along the way. Rather bleak, in fact: there’s a lot of wallowing in “the ongoing Irish ‘troubles’ that plague the country to this day,” to quote the blurb on another one of his books – that all seem to center on Ballybeg, County Donegal, by the way.
Anyway, it was stimulating to look for inconsistencies in the three characters’ stories; to apply my “mental rigour,” as the poet says. Frank’s “talent” is possibly real, but it’s definitely cursed, reminding me of Jerry Lee Lewis (who’s also resting in hell):
Anyway, it was stimulating to look for inconsistencies in the three characters’ stories; to apply my “mental rigour,” as the poet says. Frank’s “talent” is possibly real, but it’s definitely cursed, reminding me of Jerry Lee Lewis (who’s also resting in hell):
Other people - they practice and they practice... these fingers of mine, they got brains in 'em. You don't tell them what to do - they do it. God given talent.
April 1, 2022
Read becuase I am considering using monologues for a project. I don't think it comes well off the page when read and think it would be much better if seen. I git a little impatient with it but like the concept. Such disparity between stories can perhaps only be done like this, conversation would have tried to have find a common truth or created huge arguements which were not the writers point. The difference in the stories and interpretation of events is what the play os about and how we have faith that we all see events in the same way.
July 29, 2021
I listened to this play through Audible and it was masterfully acted and the sound direction and production was absolutely fantastic. This play is unnerving, and bleak and speaks to the failings of human memory. It is written brilliantly but I just didn’t like it. It was bleak, and dreary and none of the characters, except maybe Teddy, bear any shade of likeability. I’d be curious to see the plat but I did not enjoy my listen.
July 21, 2023
I listened to this on Audible, and it was extremely well done. We get the story in three parts from the three different people involved. This is a work that deals with seeing from different perspectives and the problem of memory over time (What are the stories we remember, versus What are the stories we tell ourselves so we can live with the past). I found this because I was looking for an audio performance of Friel's "Dancing at Lughnasa" and came up short.
October 9, 2023
Someone in the reviews wrote "monster monologues" and I couldn't have put it better.
Frank, Grace and Teddy.
The faith healer, his wife and the manager.
But when you put the two propositions together like that – I don’t know – somehow they both become only half-truths, you know.
My favorite librarian from Desperate Literature recommended this play to Daniel on our first-year anniversary trip to Madrid. They certainly matched.
Frank, Grace and Teddy.
The faith healer, his wife and the manager.
But when you put the two propositions together like that – I don’t know – somehow they both become only half-truths, you know.
My favorite librarian from Desperate Literature recommended this play to Daniel on our first-year anniversary trip to Madrid. They certainly matched.
May 4, 2017
These are some monster monologues. I like the juxtaposition of the different voices and the playing of the meaning of Faith Healer. It's definitely one of the better Friel's plays. There is so much there without it all being spelt out, which I like. I also like the closing of the eyes and remembering of the places.
August 6, 2023
I didn't like it as much as Translations, so 4/5. The style of the play was that of showing different perspectives of the history of a traveling healer's troup through dramatic monologues. The style reminded me of the Japanese samurai film "Rashomon." I liked that. I did find it to be highly emotional at times, and situationally, heavy things occur. It was interesting and humanistic.
August 12, 2023
Poignant commentary on the madness and mess of artistry. There is something autumnal about this play, a sense of dying to make way for the clean slate of snow for the spirit. Gracie is perhaps one Brian Friel’s more tragic females, but remains a compartment for joy that does not override the lethargic melancholy that aches within her character.
March 11, 2025
I'm not sure I "got" it, and I'm not sure if there's more to get or if I'm just missing too much context to realise, but the writing itself is fascinating. Four monologues, from three unreliable narrators, very atmospheric. Is there more than the bleak atmosphere? No idea. Reads as a set of short stories.
September 12, 2018
Two stars because Frank's monologues are practically poetry. Only two stars because ..... what?.... ? I don't think it's as deep as it's wants to be, but I also think it's one of those plays that really does just have to be seen.
August 31, 2019
Odd play, but I liked it. I'm not sure I'd find it all that satisfying to see it, as an audience member. There's no present action, just a relating of events that happened in the past. The thing I liked most is how each successive character corrected the previous character's memories of the past.
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