A review by jessrock
Faith Healer by Brian Friel

4.0

This play consists of four monologues from three people, one of whom is Frank Hardy, faith healer; and the other two of whom are his wife Grace and his manager Teddy. They each recount the same tale in very different ways, and it's often the variations in the retelling that's more interesting than the story itself. They would go into small towns in Wales, Scotland, England, and Ireland, performing faith healings on people who are so desperate they'll try anything even though they hate themselves for trying. Frank is painted as really having a gift, but most of the gift consists in knowing in advance whether anything will happen on a given night - although when it does happen, people really do get healed. The play is somewhat subtle in that I enjoyed it while I read it, but didn't think it was anything too amazing, but some of the images have really stuck with me and keep replaying themselves in my head.