DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
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Death of a snake oil salesman
PETER MASON applauds a pitch-perfect production of the late Brian Friel’s compelling study of gullability and disillusion
DEFINITIVE: Nick Holder in Faith Healer
[Marc Brenner]
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
Faith Healer
Lyric Hammersmith, London
PATRICK MAGEE, Helen Mirren and Stephen Lewis were the heavyweight cast in the first London production of Faith Healer at the Royal Court back in 1981, but it’s difficult to believe they could have been any better than Declan Conlon, Justine Mitchell and Nick Holder in this new interpretation.
Brian Friel’s mesmerising three-handed monologue is a gift for any self-respecting set of actors, but its lyrical beauty still has to be delivered – and under the typically sure-footed direction of Rachel O’Riordan this triumvirate does that in spades.
It’s a production of such wonderful intensity that it feels like the definitive interpretation, one that Friel might have wished for.
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