Camden New Journal - Theatre: Faith Healer

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

The Review - THEATRE by SARA NEWMAN
Published:5 Juy 2007

Meryl Griffiths as Grace manages to elicit empathy and pity

Friel’s classic is still keeping the faith

FAITH HEALER
Bridewell Theatre

THE three characters of Brian Friel’s 1976 play - faith healer Frank (Alex Barker), his wife Grace (Meryl Griffiths) and Teddy (Keith Hill), his manager – have been travelling together for 20 years.
Through a series of monologues Friel reveals, strand by strand, the complexities of his characters and allows the audience to spot the discrepancies and correlations in their descriptions of the same events.
Set in the remotest parts of Ireland, Scotland and Wales – where their secrets are buried – Frank and Grace depict a destructive relationship.
Barker makes a convincing habitual drunk as he stumbles about the stage in the first and last scenes.
Waspish and resentful, his blue eyes piercing the audience and sharp nose punctuating the Celtic place names he recites as if a prayer, Barker really is a “Fantastic” Frank.
Defying the smoking ban, Grace sits among the ash-trays and whisky, wretched and debauched. Her submissiveness is appropriately nauseous and yet she manages to draw empathy and pity from us too.
Though the performances are dark and demanding, they are peppered with bittersweet comedy.
In the second half, Hill’s Teddy is a particularly welcome relief. His old-school cockney charm (“I’ll tell you that for nothin’ dear heart”), rodent-like facial expressions and tales of bagpipe-playing whippets seem suddenly hilarious after Grace’s obsessive lament.
The disparate characters have in common a yellowing poster advertising “The Fantastic Francis Hardy: Faith Healer”, and it is these subtle details that temper the occasionally heavy-handed spirit of the production.
Until July 7
020 7353 3331

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment:

Check Prices, Availability & Book Online
Receive Online Discounts and Instant Confirmation

» A-Z of Theatre
» Local Reviews
» Local Listings
» West End Reviews
» West End Listings
» Theatre Tickets
» Theatre & Hotel Packages