Review - Faith Healer

Melbourne Theatre Company

Presents

Faith Healer

By Brian Freil

Directed by Judy Davis

Set Designer – Brian Thomson

Costume Designer – Tess Schofield

Lighting Designer – Verity Hampson

Composer and Sound Designer – Paul Charlier

Stage Manager – Whitney McNamara

Cast:

Teddy – Paul Blackwell

Frank – Colin Friels

Grace – Alison Whyte

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

4 March – 8 April 2017

Director and, actors all of extraordinary caliber, offer audiences a perfectly stripped back yet marvelously nuanced Belvoir Street production of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer at The Sumner Theatre until April 8.

Considered to be Irish writer Friel’s masterpiece it is made up of four rich and complex monologues that hinge on that ‘slippery fish’ memory. 

Colin Freils as Francis Hardy - Photo Jeff Busby

Colin Friels embodies the cunning, calculated yet disarmingly sincere character Francis Hardy – Frank the Faith Healer of the title.  As the work opens he launches into a deeply intriguing and mysterious monologue, riddled with self-reflection, about aspects of his life and particularly work as a ‘Healer’.  With costuming (Tess Schofield) reminiscent of a tramp from a Samuel Becket text, a comfortable demeanor and enthusiasm to inform, Friel engages us through many marvelously descriptive passages.  Like a transient Artist dependent on a fleeting and unreliable muse, Frank’s life has been colourful and full of risk, by nature of the vicissitudes and unpredictability of his profession.  

Alison Whyte as Grace - Photo Jeff Busby

Alyson Whyte as the fragile more unsettling character of Grace, Frank’s partner then takes the stage.  Never to be Frank’s wife, but shamefully, his devoted mistress Grace tells her version of the same events.  In doing so she exposes some of his glaring weaknesses.  Grace appears to be caught in the web of Frank’s illusions that pull asunder her relationship to her disapproving father.  She has little agency as a dependent and is devastatingly unable to achieve the elevated status of a mother.  All this aside she keeps returning to the familiarity of the damp mattress that is her bed with Frank.

Then Teddy, Frank’s manager played by Paul Blackwell, delivers his insights.   Teddy manages to put considerably more cheer into proceedings in the form of beer after beer and extraordinary anecdotes about ‘two dogs.’  Blackwell, one senses, could have us rolling in the isles in stitches if he chose.   Yet as consummate actor, he has the experience and restraint to briskly and most entertainingly convey his quirky characters side of the story.  Some of Teddy perceptions have a sort of ridiculous romanticism to them as he observes the tortured relationship between Frank and Grace with considerable tenderness.  This is what has empowered him to choose the anomalous soundtrack, for Frank’s healing proceedings, of Jerome Kern’s ‘Just The Way You Look Tonight.’  Teddy too, like all of us I guess, is at the very least a little delusional.   

Paul Blackwell as Teddy - Photo Jeff Busby

Blackwell infuses Teddy with a dignity that suggests he feels he is in a position to choose his circumstances.  Though in all likelihood, he is just as dependent on the benevolence of the very flawed Frank as Grace is. 

In the light of what the other characters have said, Colin Freils’s Frank, in his final monologue, comes across as a fairly wretched character – self-serving, repulsive but fascinating.  And yet each audience member’s perception of him will be dependent on individual sympathies, understanding and compassion as well as how this organic production melds together on any given night.  

The set by Brian Thompson is also pared back to a cloudy sky scape that becomes darker and more enveloping.   Light (Verity Hampson) and projection work magically together.   Sound (Paul Charlier) often a redolent drumming, when there, is usually placed just under the action. 

The Direction by Judy Davies exhibits clarity, precision and an infinite fascination and respect for the intricate complexity of what it is to be human.

Through this metaphysical work about the messy fringes of life one feels challenged, revealed and enlightened.

As a footnote I need to say Faith Healer is strong and intense and likely to polarize audiences.  I found it to be an immensely satisfying, intricate and stunningly handled production that I highly recommend and would gladly see again.

Marvelous Theatre.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)