Christopher Walker reviews the Faith Healer at the Lyric Hammersmith

I am not a fan of theatrical one-man bands. Monologues beyond a few minutes can often drag and loose the audience.

But Brian Friel’s masterpiece The Faith Healer is an exception. Not least in a top class production like this one at the Lyric Hammersmith.

It is essentially four monologues spoken in turn by three different actors. After a few minutes while the viewer adjusts to this format, each actor holds the audience in the palm of their hands. 

You can hear a pin drop, or at least the American tourist in the back row eating crisps.

Friel was of course Ireland’s theatrical genius. His most famous works such as Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa have become favourite classics. While his translations of Chekhov and Turgenev brought a new perspective to plays that were in danger of becoming historic museum pieces.

This early work from 1979 shows the promise that was to come. It is deceptively complex as each of the monologues shows different perspectives on the same series of events. Alternative facts in modern parlance.

Francis Hardy is an itinerant medicine man for the soul. He tours run down halls in Wales, Scotland and, eventually, Ireland. Does he have a real gift to heal the afflicted, or is it just theatrical show? 

Director Rachel O’Riordan deserves plaudits for pulling off Friel’s theatrical kaleidoscope so successfully.

But of course, it would fall very flat without three outstanding performances from the virtuoso actors.

Declan Conlon plays the title role and tells his tale with assured conviction. But as Justine Mitchell takes the stage, as his partner Grace, to give her testimony, we discover a very different version to Frank’s truth.

The third wheel is cockney impresario Teddy, brilliantly conjured up by Nick Holder. He brings some much-needed humour to this piece, and equal amounts of tear-jerking pathos.

The stage is as bare as the chilly Celtic halls that are Frank’s platform. 

The Lyric’s dedication to bringing the best of Irish theatre to London is well rewarded in this tight theatrical masterclass.

https://lyric.co.uk/shows/faith-healer/

Pictured top: Justine Mitchell in Faith Healer at the Lyric Theatre (Picture: Marc Brenner)