Cursed with gift of curing
One of Friel’s masterpieces, Faith Healer has rarely been produced since its debut on Broadway in 1979. This will be the third Irish touring production of the play, which marks Friel’s move from politics to the dynamics of family.
Faith Healer consists of four monologues by the faith healer, Frank Hardy, his wife, Grace, his cockney manager, Teddy and, finally, Frank again. Director Andrew Flynn says the work is “challenging. In describing the play, what emerges is something that almost goes against the rules of theatre. Nobody talks to each other. While the monologue format has become very popular, these particular monologues are very intricate. They’re not interspersed with different voices. They are complete character monologues.”
Flynn says the play is demanding of audiences, with the three different characters’ perspectives on events.
“Just as you’re given one angle, you then get a completely different angle from the next character. Friel doesn’t give the audience any answers at the very end. He doesn’t wrap it up neatly, instead allowing the audience to make its own judgement. That is very powerful,” Flynn says.
Frank is travelling, with his two companions, in Scotland and Wales, healing the sick. The ill and the broken-hearted gather for the man known as ‘the fantastic Frank Hardy.’ “The play is about faith, belief and relationships. The whole notion of a faith healer is something that intrigues many Irish people. Frank isn’t a conman because he’s not in it for the money. He doesn’t charge anything. Yet, sometimes his faith healing works and sometimes it doesn’t,” Flynn says.
The play is about Frank’s destruction. He is troubled. “He has this gift that he can’t explain and has no control over. He can’t make it work when he wants to. He has huge doubts despite the fact that the people that surround him have huge faith in him,” Flynn says.
Frank wants to heal his mother, but she dies. “This is a man who has cured people of cancer and blindness. But he suffers the agony of having a gift and yet not being able to use it for the people he loves. He is full of questions, such as wondering if his healing powers are real or whether it’s about the desperation of the people coming to him,” he says.
Friel takes a phenomenon we can’t understand and likens it to the talent of artists. “You could look at the faith healer as an actor. Some nights, the performance works and is glorious. On other nights, it doesn’t feel that way. It’s like a writer who works hard on his latest play but fails. Yet the one he didn’t spend too much time on takes off. The play questions these unanswerable questions and allows the audience to think about that kind of thing,” Flynn says.
Frank is a heavy drinker. “He is someone who is drinking to numb the pain he experiences as a result of his doubts and lack of faith in himself. It’s basically driving him mad. He’s like a tormented genius. In rehearsal, we have been referencing people like Picasso. Great artists’ lives tend to be destructive and have a destructive influence on the people around them. Yet the public is intrigued by them. Sometimes, we accept behaviour from certain people because of their gifts,” he says.
Faith Healer is also about the unreliability of memory. The three characters remember events in different ways. “Watching the play, you instinctively tend to believe in one version. I would argue that all the characters are reliable because every story they tell is truthful to them. But the audience has to make its own decision,” Flynn says.
One story told from different perspectives is Grace’s still-born child. “While Grace gives her perspective, Teddy gives a much more horrifying one. The treatment of Grace by Frank during that period could be perceived as very harrowing. But you have to ask the question that, given that Frank is supposed to be this mystical person with a gift, his treatment of his wife could come from the agony of not being able to bring this child back to life,” he says.
Flynn says it would be easy to portray Frank as unlikeable. “But I think you have to like him. The question arises as to why Grace and Teddy put up with what they did. I believe the answer to that comes from the fact that Frank is special. There is pain and hurt but there’s an ultimate love and attachment to the man. It’s inexplicable, but there are times when it’s glorious to be around Frank,” he says.
All three characters return to Ireland. “That ultimately brings about Frank’s demise. Returning home suggests a sense of trying to restore Frank. As the play progresses, his doubts become greater and take their toll,” he says.
Flynn says Friel is the greatest living Irish playwright. “Faith Healer is brilliantly written. Friel is very precise in his language. For me, it’s about trying to find the rhythms and trust them. This play is a really pure form of theatre. It goes back to the original Greek plays, which were monologues. Friel has stripped everything back in Faith Healers. There’s no big set or massive lighting. It’s very simple. It’s about the actors and the audience. Friel is a master of words, more so than any other writer I’ve worked on. If you obey his rules on punctuation, pauses and silences, the work comes to life,” he says.
Frank is played by Lalor Roddy, Ali White plays Grace and Rod Goodall plays Teddy. Goodall says that the role of Teddy “is one of the best roles ever written for actors of a certain age.” He is in his 60s.
“While Teddy is the comic element of the play, there is also tremendous pathos in this character. He can be very amusing, but underneath there’s a sense of loss when Frank passes on. Teddy is no longer the manager of the faith healer. He’s living in a bedsit in London and is rather forlorn. The deeper I go into the role, the more I realise how much pathos lies beneath the humour. It’s a very well-crafted play,” Flynn says.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
