Faith Healer (1995-6)
One might expect that seeing Brian Friel's Faith Healer in Cairo would have produced something of the cultural
alienation that is itself one of the concerns of the play, but, in fact, the exotic, even somewhat estranged
setting seemed to reinforce rather than diminish the power of this production. Under the direction of Richard
Cave, the presentation is sharply-focused and taut, in keeping with Friel's
unrelenting peeling away of the palimpsests of self-deceptions that camouflage and undermine identity.
The succession of four monologues provides Gary Lilburn in the role of the travelling healer, Frank Hardy, Amanda Hurvitz,
as his wife Grace, and Martin Head as Teddy, his cockney manager, with ample opportunity to show that it is the
sovereignty of the word that contains the nuanced tension and genuine impact of this by now classic play.
In their ability to tease out and unravel language, all three performers not only establish mood, explore
connotation, and plumb idiom but also provide powerful instances
of how languages can be deconstructed to reveal the manner in which complexity of character and intricacies
of plot can be submerged in the details of personal history and individual relationships.
As the story of their journeys through Scotland and Wales unfolds, each character is engaged in sifting
the past for fragments of meaning that will be commensurate with present self-perception. Such a process
inevitably entails repressions, evasions, elisions and downright falsehoods, and it is this central miasma
that permits the actors to excel in all those verbal, non-dramatic subtleties that are ultimately the means
by which all memorable stage performances are calibrated. Indeed, it is a measure of the performances
in this production that, as each character fills the canvas that becomes the self-portrait, Friel's
play soon transcends such individual concerns to embrace questions of how trappings of cultural
identity such as art, language and words are shifting, unreliable phenomena and, as such, are in a constant state of flux,
pegged to no permanent verities associated with particular times or places.
These shifting, conflicting forces at the heart of Friel's play were reinforced by the cast
of Border Crossings, coming as they did from different cultural backgrounds. Their performances
readily permitted the resonances of Friel's play to move beyond the shores of these islands so
that the work speaks tellingly of the complex and universal nexus where individual identity,
artistic impulse, linguistic facility and cultural expression all swirl and merge to create a
potent subject for theatrical exploration. Under the controlled and sure direction of Richard Cave,
this production seemed, therefore, as much at home in Cairo as it would be in London, Belfast or Cardiff.
The fact that this self-contained atmosphere was made palpable and credible on the Egyptian stage -
with minimal sets and superbly rationed lighting - speaks as much of the professionalism of this
company as it does for the power of Friel's play. In its highly mobile format, the production is
ideally suited for travel, so that audiences beyond the British Isles (and Cairo) can experience both the richness
of Friel's play and the subtle yet effective power of this highly rewarding production.
Michael Kenneally
The editor of Cultural Concepts and Literary Idioms in Contemporary Irish Literature
(Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe 1988) and Irish Literature and Culture(Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe 1992).
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