FAITH HEALER by BRIAN FRIEL at the LYRIC THEATRE, BELFAST on the 14th, October 2026

 

FAITH HEALER by BRIAN FRIEL at the LYRIC THEATRE, BELFAST on the 14^th, October 2026

 

Brian Friel’s play Faith Healer concerns the life of Francis Hardy, a travelling showman, fraudster, con man, artiste who claims to heal the sick and make miracles happen.  It seems that Hardy is really a kind of metaphor for the artist who chooses the most precarious profession, far beyond the sureties of a 9 – 5 job, a salary and permanence.  Hardy is well-used to confidence tricks, claiming to be the seventh son of a seventh son (and therefore a person endowed with mental powers beyond the norm), when he knows that he’s an only child, born in Ireland.  Hardy is bemused by his own abilities and seems honestly confused himself as to whether he is a miracle worker or a shameless imposter.  His work is, as Hardy says, ‘a vocation without a ministry’.

The play consists of four dramatic monologues.  The first is delivered by Hardy himself, the second by his wife (Hardy claims that she’s a ‘mistress’) Grace, the third by his stage manager Teddy, and a final monologue performed by Hardy again.  The mise en scene is sparse, consisting of a stage within a stage (suggesting that Hardy is both an artificer and a faith healer), stacks of chairs, the sort that fill school assembly halls, simple, wooden, redundant.  The sound design is also mostly unintrusive, consisting of melodies from the 1950s, suggesting a certain time and place, and Fred Astaire’s rendition of ‘The Way You Look Tonight’.  In fact, most of Hardy’s ‘performances’ take place in remote villages in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Britain’s Celtic fringe, places where archaic notions of religion and superstition, faith and miracles, might still be sustained.  In other words, old rubbish clings on in these out of the way, dead end places.

The other location mentioned is Paddington, London, where Teddy resides and, unknown to him, Grace eventually moves into a nearby bedsit.  Grace is tormented by the loss of her child, stillborn in a tiny Scottish village called Kinloch Burvey, and hastily buried in a field.  Francis recites some improvised prayers and marks the grave with a white cross.  The story is recounted by all three protagonists with each providing differing inflections on the ‘truth’.  Francis never acknowledges Grace as his wife; their relationship is stillborn too.  Grace commits suicide in London and Teddy is taken by the police to identify the body.

Teddy, an east end cockney, the most plausible character in the play, a realist who ruminates on the great performers, realising that Hardy is one of them.  Teddy is clear that Hardy is a performer and that any further claims about his work are obviously wrong, in fact doubts never even seem to enter his head.  He regards Hardy’s audience as suckers and mugs, but Hardy’s attitude reflects his vocation, because he is simultaneously a sceptic and a believer.  Faith Healer is a play built on words, not action, the overall sense of stasis is maintained throughout, minimal lighting, set and sound design, costumes that evoke a certain era, the wrong side of 1960.  For all that, this play is gripping and essential, not because of the tragic subject matter it evokes, but because of the telling of the story.  Like Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon, the past is revealed through the testimonies of different characters whose view of things is coloured and discoloured through hope and bitter disillusionment.

Faith Healer is undoubtedly a great play, just as The Tempest or The Playboy of the Western World are great plays.  Hardy resembles Prospero, a magician who realises the world is changing, fading and passing away.  Another time is about to be born, a time that has no place for his arcane trade and charlatanism.  Hardy descends into alcoholism, just as Prospero withers into the truth, his powers fade away like the insubstantial vision he entertains.  Conleth Hill plays Frank, his performance holds the play together.  He can tell his unbelievable, preposterous story with conviction and evokes a strong sense of mystery about his origins and fate.  Lisa Dwyer Hogg imbues Grace with suffering and an innate desire for transcendence.  Chris McCurry’s Teddy is the realistic centre about which the other characters orbit.  He gets the show on the road, collects the money at the door, supplies Frank with whisky, and massages truths to make them palatable and compatible.

The ending of the play is the only element I had doubts about.  Frank fails to heal a believer and is murdered by his relatives.  Perhaps such acts of desperation do happen in remote communities, but this reviewer finds it unlikely.  What it really means is that Frank discovers a personal redemption amongst the ruin of his own life and those of the people around him.

Faith Healer is at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast now.  I urge you to see it before it leaves. 

Paul Murphy, Belfast, October 2026