27 jan – 5 march 2011

presents
Directed by Simon Godwin/Designed by Mike Britton
www.bristololdvic.org.uk/faithhealer
27 JAN – 5 MARCH 2011
Educational material produced by Eleanor Fogg, Assistant Director
CONTENTS
3 Introduction
- The theatre
- The play and production
- What is faith healing?
4 The Writer: Brian Friel
7 The Play
- Synopsis
- Characters
- Structure
- Themes
16 The Production
- Interview with the Director
- Understanding the text
- Design process
- Interview with the Designer
- Past productions
26 Suggested Practical Exercises
28 Extracts from the Text
32 Further Reading
INTRODUCTION
The theatre
Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company which was founded in 1946. It is based in a
complex which includes the unique Theatre Royal, the oldest theatre auditorium in
the UK which opened in 1766. The Studio, where Faith Healer will be performed,
was built in the 1970s. The building also includes the 18th Century Coopers’ Hall
foyer, rehearsal spaces, a workshop and paintshop, a café and bar, and administration
offices. Bristol Old Vic programmes a diverse range of theatre and performance,
runs a popular Young Company for people aged 7-25, and works with schools and
community groups.
The play and production
Faith Healer is a play by Irish playwright Brian Friel. It was first performed in 1979 at
the Longacre Theatre, New York. The play is made up of four monologues, one each
from Grace and Teddy, and two from Frank, at the beginning and the end. Through
the monologues we hear each character’s perspective on themselves, the other
characters, and two main events: one night in Kinlochbervie and Frank’s death. The
three accounts sometimes agree and sometimes differ, allowing us to gain an insight
into the characters, and a rough outline of a story, but leaving what actually happened
open to interpretation.
The Bristol Old Vic production of Faith Healer will run from 27th January – 5th March
2010 in the Studio. The play will be directed by Simon Godwin, whose recent credits
include Caryl Churchill’s Far Away (Bristol Old Vic) and Nick Payne’s Wanderlust (Royal
Court). The creative team include designer Mike Britton (‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore,
West Yorkshire Playhouse and Broken Glass, Tricycle Theatre), lighting designer Guy
Hawe, and composer Alex Silverman.
What is faith healing?
Faith healing is the belief that faith can bring about healing by evoking a divine
presence which cures disease or disability. The term ‘faith healing’ often refers to
ritualistic practices of communal prayer, gestures or physical contact (such as the
Evangelical Christian ‘laying on of hands’) that claim to solicit divine intervention
in initiating spiritual and literal healing. The term is sometimes used in connection
with Christianity. Some people interpret the Bible, especially the New Testament, as
teaching belief in, and practice of, faith healing.
Claims that prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can
cure illness have been popular throughout history. Miraculous recoveries have been
attributed to many techniques. Faith healing can involve prayer, a visit to a religious
shrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being.
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THE WRITER: BRIAN FRIEL
1929 born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. His father was a
primary school teacher and later a local councillor for Derry/
Londonderry, and his mother was a postmistress.
1948 graduated with a BA from St Pat’s College, Maynooth.
1950 qualified as a teacher. Began teaching maths in the Derry primary and
intermediate school system.
1954 married Anne Morrison. The couple are still married, they have four
daughters and a son.
1958 Friel’s first radio plays A Sort of Freedom and To This Hard House
were produced and aired on BBC Northern Ireland Home Service.
1959 began writing short stories for The New Yorker; published two well received publications.
1960 took leave from his job to pursue a career as a writer, living off
his savings.
His first stage play A Doubtful Paradise was produced by the Ulster
Group Theatre, to a lukewarm reception.
1962 – 1963 wrote 59 articles for The Irish Press while struggling as a
working writer.
1963 The Blind Mice, Friel’s most successful play to date, played for six
weeks at Dublin’s Elbana Theatre. It was later withdrawn by the writer.
Friel spent two months working as an ‘observer’ at Tyrone Guthrie’s
theatre in Minneapolis.
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1964 wrote Philadelphia, Here I Come! which achieved success in Dublin,
London and New York. The play’s protagonist Gareth was split into
two characters, Public Gar and Private Gar, played by different actors.
Philadelphia is often cited as a turning point in Irish drama, away from
peasant plays.
1966 moved with his family to Greencastle, County Donegal.
1969 wrote The Mundy Scheme, a satire of the Irish government, which
began what is often seen as an explicitly political period in
Friel’s writing.
1972 marched with the crowds in a Civil Rights Association protest against
internment, which became known as Bloody Sunday after British
soldiers opened fire, killing thirteen protesters.
1973 wrote The Freedom of the City, which remains one of the most
important works about the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
1977 – 1979 Friel’s writing takes a more domestic focus, with plays such as Living
Quarters (1977) and Aristocrats (1979), a Chekhovian study of a
once influential family’s financial collapse.
1979 Faith Healer premieres on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre, New
York, and closes after just 20 performances. The play is often seen
as a culmination of Friel’s experimentation with theatrical form
during this period.
1980 sets up Field Day Theatre Company with actor Stephen Rea, to
stage Translations, which featured a performance from Liam Neeson,
at the Guildhall I Derry. Although Field Day never released an official
mission statement, their aim was to create a ‘fifth province’ (in
addition to the four provinces of Ireland), a cultural space where
discourse could transcend the Irish political oppositions and
promote unity.
1987 – 1989 served on the Seanad Éireann (Senate of Ireland).
1988 wrote Making History, a play set in Ireland in 1591 and based on
the real event of the Battle of Kinsale. The late 1980s are often
referred to as a creative ‘gap’ for Friel, as he released few original
works due to managing Field Day.
1989 BBC launched the ‘Brian Friel Season’, airing six of his plays.
1990 Dancing at Lughnasa premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; it
wasn’t a Field Day production. The play is probably Friel’s most
successful to date; it transferred to the West End and Broadway
where it won three Tony awards in 1992.
1993 Molly Sweeney enjoyed considerable success on the stage, but
attracted little critical interest, perhaps because of the similarity of
its monologue structure to Faith Healer.
1994 resigned as a director of Field Day. It is during this period that
Friel returned to a position of dominance in Irish theatre.
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1999
The Friel Festival took place in Dublin, ten of his plays were staged.
Friel received a lifetime achievement award from The Irish Times.
2001 – 2002
premieres of three short one-act plays: The Bear (2002), The Yalta
Game (2001), and Afterplay (2002). The latter two plays express
Friel’s continuing fascination with Chekhov.
2003 Performances combines a play with a performance from a
string quartet.
2005 wrote The Home Place, the last play set in Friel’s fictional village
of Ballybeg, and the first to directly consider the Protestant
experience. The play transferred to the West End and US after a
sold-out season at The Gate Theatre, Dublin.
2006 presented with a Golden Torc by the Aosdána, an association
of people in Ireland who have achieved distinction in the arts.
2009 both The Gate and The Abbey theatres in Ireland staged a
selection of Friel’s plays to celebrate his 80th birthday.
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THE PLAY
Synopsis
The play consists of four monologues. The first and last are spoken by the faith healer,
Francis (Frank) Hardy; the second by his wife, Grace; and the third by his cockney
manager, Teddy.
The monologues tell the story of the faith healer himself, and three central events: an
incident in the Welsh village of Llanblethian in which Frank cures ten people; the time
all three characters spent in Kinlochbervie, Scotland; and Frank’s death in Ballybeg,
Ireland. Teddy’s monologue reveals that Grace commits suicide, while Frank ponders
whether his gift is real. In Frank’s second monologue, it is suggested that he is killed
after being unable to heal a disabled man. However, it is not made explicitly clear that
Frank dies; Friel leaves this up to the audiences’ interpretation.
The fact that Faith Healer does not end definitively typifies a main point of the play;
each character gives a different recollection of the same events.
Characters
‘It wasn’t that he was simply a liar…it was some compulsion he had to adjust, to
refashion, to re-create everything around him. Even the people who came to him…
they were real enough, but not real as persons, real as fictions, his fictions…it seemed
to me that he kept remaking people’ (345 – 346).
The nature of the play means that there are few concrete facts about the characters.
Friel tells us a little about each character in the opening stage directions of their
monologue. What the characters tell us about their own past is cast into doubt, as
each monologue contradicts the others in places.
FRANK HARDY
Frank is ‘The Fantastic Francis Hardy: Faith Healer’. Friel describes him as ‘middleaged; grey or greying’ (331). He travels to villages around the UK to perform in ‘kirks
or meeting houses or schools’ (332). He tells us that he was born in Kilmeedy, a village
in County Limerick, Republic of Ireland. He was the only child of Jack and Mary Hardy.
He says his father was a Sergeant of the Guards, but Grace claims he was a storeman.
Frank tells us very little of his early life, or how he came to faith healing. He seems
troubled by his ‘gift’, and drinks heavily. His death is one of the events we hear about
in the play. If we take Frank’s death as a fact, he is already dead when we meet him.
7
GRACE HARDY
Grace is Frank’s wife, although he describes her as his mistress. She travelled with
him as he toured the country. Frank claims she is Northern English, and constantly
invents different surnames for her: ‘Grace Dodsmith from Scarborough - or was it
Knaresborough?’ (335). Grace tells us she is from Knockmoyle, a village near Omagh,
County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Her father was a judge, and her mother suffered
intermittently from mental illness. They had a large house and a housekeeper. Grace
trained as a solicitor, and ran off with Frank after she qualified. Frank and Grace never
had children; Grace has had at least two miscarriages and a stillborn child, which we
learn about in the play. Frank claims she is ‘barren’ (372). When we meet her, after
Frank’s death, she is ‘in early middle-age’, and in a ‘distraught mental state’ (341).
She smokes a lot, and takes medication. She lives in a bedsit near Paddington in
London, and works every morning in a local library. We learn from Teddy that she
later commits suicide.
TEDDY
Teddy is Frank’s manager. He is ‘in his fifties’ (353) but looks younger. He travelled with
Frank and Grace in his van. He is from London; Frank describes him as ‘cockney’ (334).
We don’t learn much about his past, except that he used to own two dogs, one of
which was Rob Roy, the Piping Dog, and that he used to manage Miss Mulatto and her
Pigeons. He muses on the nature of showbusiness. He has an interesting relationship
with Frank, who he seems to both idolise and resent, and it is implied that he was in
love with Grace until Frank ‘cured’ (368) him of it before his death.
1. EXERCISE
Write down three facts about yourself that are true, but that other people might not
believe. Write down one thing about yourself that is a lie, but that other people might
believe is true. Read out all four, in any order. Which one do other people think is a
lie? Why might we believe some things more readily than others? Is this related to
how the information is relayed?
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Structure
The fact that the characters do not interact with one another means that there has
been some debate over whether Faith Healer qualifies as a play. All the action in
the play is reported; we do not actually see any of the events happen onstage.
Friel argues that:
‘[With monologues] you do lose what are commonly accepted to be the normal
dramatic tensions or… interest, but I think there’s a possibility you can succeed on
different levels… On the level of storytelling for example. The play, in fact, must find
its main thrust at that level: people simply telling stories about their lives.’ (Evening
Herald, 28th August, 1980).
*Fact Healer: Storytelling is often seen as being an important part of Irish culture. Friel
suggests that the Irish consciousness is more receptive to stories. This can be traced
back to the tradition of the ‘seanchaí’, the travelling storyteller. ‘Seanchaí’ means ‘a
bearer of old lore’. In ancient Celtic culture, law and history were not written down,
but were memorised in long lyric poems which were recited by bards called ‘fili’.
DISCUSS:
What is the difference between a poem, a short story, a monologue and a play?
Truth And Subjectivity
‘I think audiences will extract their own meaning from a play which may not necessarily
coincide with the precise one that I had. But in some way I think that’s another form of
communication. That brings us back to ‘what is the truth?’ again.’ (Friel in The Evening
Herald, 28th August, 1980).
The monologue structure means that there is no attempt to portray one objective
truth in Faith Healer. In a play where events are depicted live on stage, although the
characters’ intentions and the events between scenes are left open to interpretation,
we can at least be sure that what we have seen is ‘what happened’ in the diegetic
world. The events in Faith Healer are reported to us in the past tense, and filtered
through the perspectives of the characters. There is no evidence to suggest that one
character’s account is more reliable than the others, so the audience must negotiate
three versions of events, none of which may be the ‘truth’.
2. EXERCISE
Work in a group of three. Choose one event that you all remember. Write an account
of that event, without discussing it first. Read out all three accounts to the class.
Where do they differ, and where do they converge? What impression of the event did
the rest of the class get from the combination of the three accounts?
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Studying Subjectivity
The structure of the play, with its lack of emphasis on concrete evidence and objective
truth, relates to the concept of faith itself. Faith is a belief in something which we
cannot see or prove, something intangible. As the world of the play only exists in the
writing, and the writing never gives us a complete or objective account, there is in fact
no ‘true’ version of events; if the events never actually occurred, we cannot find out
what really happened.
The study of a text like Faith Healer could be compared to the way one would study a
historical or religious text like the Bible; looking at where many accounts of one event
converge in order to establish what we can deem to be ‘true’. Of course, some events
in religious texts are corroborated by historical accounts, and the events in the play
cannot be, as they did not actually happen. However, the comparison may be helpful
when thinking about faith. How do we decide what to believe in Faith Healer?
Do we choose one character who we trust more than the others, or do we form
our own version of events based on where the stories converge? Is any account of
an event ever free from bias? How do we decide what to believe when there is no
concrete evidence?
3. EXERCISE
Think of something that you believe, but that cannot be proved. Write down two
reasons why you believe it, and two reasons why others may doubt it. If you would
like to, share your belief and reasons with the class.
DISCUSS
Look at Extract 1. What is the significance of the newspaper clipping?
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Themes
FAITH AND RITUAL
Types of Faith
It is not clear where Frank’s powers come from, and he does not identify himself with
one particular religion or practice. In Faith Healer Friel uses language that connotes
various types of religious, magical or personal faith.
4. EXERCISE
In groups, look at Extracts 3, 4, 5 and 7. Make a list of the words or phrases that
suggest different types of faith. What do Frank’s audience have faith in? Where do
you think Frank believes his power comes from? Where do Grace and Teddy believe
it comes from?
Healing
There is little description in Faith Healer of exactly what it is that Frank does to
‘heal’ people. Some accounts of faith healings involve physical contact, such as the
Evangelical Christian practice of ‘laying on of hands’. Other practices, such
as hypnotism, rely only on psychological manipulation.
DISCUSS
In groups, look at these extracts from the text (3, 4, 8, 9, 10). What impression do
these extracts give you of what Frank does? How does this relate to religious or
spiritual practices that you know about?
Perspectives on Faith
The three characters in Faith Healer provide different perspectives on faith and Frank’s
powers. Their occupation and background affect their perception of Frank, and our
interpretation of what they tell us about him.
5. EXERCISE
Look at these excerpts (Grace: 5, Teddy: 6 and 7).
Why do you think the fact that Grace is a qualified solicitor, and comes from a legal
background, is important?
How might Teddy’s background in showbusiness affect his opinion of Frank’s
powers, and how does it affect our interpretation of his views?
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Ritual
FRANK:
(Eyes closed)
‘Aberarder, Aberayron,
Llangranog, Llangurig,
Abergorlech, Abergynolwyn,
Llandefeilog, Llanerchymedd,
Aberhosan, Aberporth…
All those dying Welsh villages. (Eyes open) I’d get so tense before a performance,
d’you know what I used to do? As we drove along those narrow, winding roads I’d
recite the names to myself just for the mesmerism, the sedation, of the incantation.’
(331 - 332).
A ritual is a set of actions which are performed mainly for their symbolic value. Ritual
can be prescribed by a religion or the traditions of a community. In Faith Healer, two
significant rituals are mentioned: the spoken incantation of place names, and the
playing of the record The Way You Look Tonight by Fred Astaire. Teddy plays the
record at the beginning and end of his monologue. The characters give differing
accounts of why it was used in Frank’s performances; Frank claims it was chosen by
Teddy, and Teddy insists that Grace chose it. Frank speaks the place names before his
performances. This seems to be a form of meditation that Frank uses to focus himself;
Grace says that he ‘[released] them from his mouth in that special voice…as if he were
blessing them or consecrating himself’ (343-344). In Grace’s monologue, it seems that
she has adopted this incantation as a means of calming herself.
*Fact Healer: The dindseanchas are a collection of poems and prose commentaries
from early Irish literature that recount the origins of place names, and describe events
and characters associated with the places in question. Since many of the legends
involve the acts of important mythic figures, the dindseanchas, and the meanings of
the place names themselves, are a key part of Irish history and heritage.
6. EXERCISE
Think of a ritual you use in everyday life. Write down in detail the actions you do.
Teach it to someone else without explaining why you do it. What does it mean to
them? Is this the same as what it means to you?
THE WRITER/THE HEALER
Friel on Faith Healer:
‘It was some kind of metaphor for the art, the craft of writing, or whatever it is. And
the great confusion we all have about it, those of us who are involved in it. How
honourable and dishonourable it can be. And it’s also a pursuit that, of necessity, has
to be very introspective, and as a consequence it leads to great selfishness.
So that you’re constantly, as I’m doing at this moment, saying something and listening
to yourself saying it, and that third eye is constantly watching you. And it’s a very
dangerous thing because in some way it prevents whatever natural freedom you might
have, and that natural freedom must find its expression in the real world. So there’s an
exploration of that – I mean the elements of the charlatan that there is in all creative
work.’ (In Dublin, 1982).
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DISCUSS
In groups, look at the quote above. How does the character of Frank relate to
the writer, or Friel himself?
LANGUAGE, LOCATION AND IDENTITY
Language is an important theme in Friel’s writing. His plays are often concerned with
the gap between what we experience, and what language can express. Friel said of
Translations (1980), the play which followed Faith Healer: ‘the play has to do with
language and only language’ (in Pine 1990). Translations is set in the fictional village
of Baile Baeg, County Donegal during the English colonisation of Ireland in 1833.
The village appears in many of Friel’s plays, including Faith Healer. The Irish word
Ballybeg translates as ‘little town’ in English; its meaning is comparable to ‘Smallville’
in Superman. Translations explores how the English gain power over the Irish by taking
away their language. Place names with complex meanings are arbitrarily changed to
English words that the Irish don’t understand, and they are banned from speaking in
their native tongue. Ironically, in order to make his plays about Ireland accessible to a
wider audience, Friel must write in English, the language of the colonisers.
Friel often chooses words carefully, and meaning and etymology are important to
his writing. For instance in Faith Healer, Kinlochbervie, where Grace gives birth to a
stillborn baby, is part of an area in Scotland that was named ‘the Rough County’ as it
was so inhospitable that nothing would grow there, which relates to Frank’s claim that
Grace is ‘barren’ (372).
Names and locations are often related to identity in Friel’s writing. In Translations, the
Irish lose their identity as their homes are made foreign by being renamed. In Faith
Healer, Frank mysteriously refuses to acknowledge Grace’s Irish heritage, insisting that
she is from Yorkshire, and changing her surname each time he introduces her. In doing
so, he is not only denying her cultural roots, but also denying that they are married,
and exercising power over her identity.
7. EXERCISE
Look up the meaning of your name. Do you feel it reflects your personality? How
would you feel if someone changed your name? Look up the meaning of the name of
the place where you live. Compare it to the list of place name meanings from Faith
Healer. Does it have any historical or geographical significance? Would it matter if
that name was changed?
8. Creating Character EXERCISE
Write your name. See how many other names you can make from its letters. Choose
one. Write it vertically down the side of the page. Next to each letter, write something
that your character likes that begins with that letter. Write the name again, with a
list of things they don’t like. Write a list of words that you think would describe this
person. Look at the list; can you see any pairs of words that contradict one another?
What do you think this character is like?
9. EXERCISE
Look at Extract 2. What do you think is happening? What images does it conjure up
in your mind? Try to write another paragraph to describe what happens to Frank.
Can language express what you are trying to say?
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Place name meanings in Faith Healer
Scotland
KINLOCHBERVIE
At one time this part of the country was called An Ceathramh Garbh, The Rough
Quarter. Sir Alexander Gordon, writing in the seventeenth century, said: ‘It is all rough
with wood, mountains, and tractless paths, and incapable of being tilled or bearing
crops, except in a very few places’. As it was unsuitable for cultivation it was given up
to the rearing of goats, cattle, and horses. The lake is called to this day, Loch-innisnam-ba-bhuidhe, meaning, the lake by which the yellow herd graze. The little village
that grew up at the end of the lake, between it and the sea, was called Ceann-lochnam-buar-bhuidhe. English speakers, who did not understand the meaning of the
word, were in too great a hurry to waste breath on so long a compound, and called it
Kin-loch-ber-vie.
INVERGORDON
NAME ON DOMESDAY MAP: Inverbreckie, MEANING: the name Invergordon dates
from c.1760 when Sir Alexander Gordon, the landowner, developed the settlement.
The earlier name for the area was Inverbreckie “GOIDELIC inbhir `mouth’ [of the]
Breckie”; the river name derived from breac `speckled’.
INVERKEITHING
NAME ON DOMESDAY MAP: Inverchethin, DATE: c.1200, MEANING:
“GOIDELIC inbhir `mouth’ [of the] Keithing”. The burn name derives from
BRYTHONIC cet, chet `wood’.
Ireland
KILMEEDY
(Where Frank is born), County Limerick. Translates as Cill mÍde, or Church of my Ita.
This refers to Saint Ita who founded a church in the area.
KNOCKMOYLE
(Grace’s hometown), County Galway. NAME ON DOMESDAY MAP: Cnoc Muaidhe
MEANING: ‘Muaidh’s cnoc `hill’. (This woman’s name meant `good’ or `noble’). The
abbey was founded by Cahal of the Red Hand in 1190.
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Wales
ABERPORTH
(Dyf) Aberporth, MEANING: WELSH aber ‘river mouth’ and porth ‘harbour’.
ABERAERON
(Dyf) Aber Aeron (15th century). MEANING: from WELSH aber ‘mouth’ and the river
name Aeron‘ goddess of battle’ (from WELSH aer ‘battle’).
LLANBLETHIAN
(where Frank heals ten people). (SGl) Llanbleddian Meaning: from WELSH llan ‘church’
and St. Bleddian.
LLANDEFAELOG
MEANING: from WELSH llan ‘church’ and St. Maelog.
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THE PRODUCTION
Interview With The Director
Director Simon Godwin shares his views on the play, Frank’s powers, truth and faith.
What were your initial thoughts when you first read Faith Healer?
My initial thought when I read Faith Healer was that it was a cracking good story.
In fact it’s three cracking good stories, in that three different characters discuss the
same events. Faith Healer works on a similar model to Chinese Whispers. It’s about
the pleasure of us discovering through stories; what stays the same and what
changes with each telling.
How do you think the play’s structure affects its meaning?
The meaning of the play lies around the question of how we process and describe
events, and how our description begins to shape the event itself. If I described to you
a love affair I once had the way that I would describe it cannot be exactly how it was.
There’s a difference, a gap, between language and the thing itself. And once that is
acknowledged there’s a kind of playfulness in that gap, there’s a space for something
else to appear. The play is asking us: what is the relationship between the event and
how we describe it? Does the event change under the pressure or opportunity to
describe it to another person? Where does reality begin and my description of it end?
I was reading Brian Friel’s diaries on the train today, and he was saying that the job
of the philosopher is like the job of the cartographer who maps the coastline of an
island not to learn the boundaries of the island, but to learn the limits of the ocean.
This sense of a space so enormous, so huge, so unknowable at the heart of Faith
Healer. It’s about the limits of language to describe something which may lie beyond
words. And there we have the link to the idea of the miracle, which is beyond the
everyday, beyond the rational, beyond the normal, and may not be communicable in
conventional language. I think in this play Brian Friel is trying to evoke an ocean-like
feeling in the audience. He’s asking us: what are the limits of understanding and
of possibility?
What is your interpretation of Frank’s powers?
The faith healer is partly a metaphor for the artist. Art tries to go beyond the everyday
to conjure up something that is invisible. Theatre is a kind of ritual, a summoning up
of a spirit of some kind. So we can say that the faith healer, who tries to heal the sick,
could be compared to the artist, who’s trying to heal the audience. Like those people
that go to a faith healer to be cured, when we go and see a play we’re hoping that
something miraculous will happen; we’re hoping that we’ll feel better, more sensitive,
more aware of our life at the end of the play than we do at the beginning. So for
me Frank’s powers can be understood as being like a poet, a playwright, a painter;
somebody that tries to awaken a part of us that is lying dormant.
How do you think the play deals with the concept of faith?
Faith isn’t necessarily a Christian faith in this play; it’s not a faith in a religious sense
I don’t think, it’s faith in the sense of something bigger than ourselves. That’s what
interests me, because I have experienced moments of that, and it’s the closest that
I’ve come to feeling lightened, hopeful, curious and grateful. Wittgenstein said that
16
faith is experience, so my role is to try and create an experience through which people
encounter something which gives them faith in the possibility that the bigger space is
there; that the ocean exists, rather than simply the island.
What’s clever about the play is it’s not just an unambivalent celebration of faith as a
way out, as a sort of jolly euphoria; it also says sometimes faith can be problematic.
You have the character of Grace, who believes in Frank at all costs. She loves him
and follows him around the country, and when he dies she’s so wrapped up in him
and his power that she can’t live without him. There we see someone who is the
victim of faith. There’s also a great ambivalence in the character of Frank, who takes
himself so seriously that not only does he almost destroy those around him, in fact he
destroys himself. So the play is trying to look at that paradox: what is a faith that will
lift us out of ourselves and cure us, and what is a faith that will destroy us? What is the
appropriate level of faith, and when does that become hubristic? The play isn’t trying
to prescribe anything; it’s illuminating the complexity of faith.
17
Understanding The Text
Before rehearsals begin, it is important to gain a good understanding of the play and
do any necessary research. We used some exercises from Katie Mitchell’s The Directors
Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre to help us get to know the text and characters.
‘When you first start working on a play, you need a simple way of organising your
discoveries and responses. Listing information in the form of facts and questions will
help you to do this. Facts are non-negotiable elements of the text. They are the main
clues that the writer gives you about the play…Questions are a way of notating the
areas of the text that are less clear or that you are simply not sure of. Ask a question
about anything that is not simple or clear. Always write facts and questions down in
simple and objective sentences. As a rule of thumb, if you are not immediately sure
what you have identified is a fact, turn it into a question.
Organising information in this way encourages you to hold an objective relationship to
the material and inhibits premature attempts to interpret the play.’ (Mitchell 2009:11).
This exercise can be used for any type of text, modern or old. When you have
compiled a list of facts and questions for the whole play, you can go through the list
and decide what research you need to do in order to answer the questions. This will
ensure that you do not do any unnecessary research. The questions will inevitably be
the same as some of the questions the actors may ask in rehearsals, so this will prepare
you to enter the rehearsal room as well informed about the text as possible. Take a
look at this page from our list for Part One of Faith Healer to see what sort of things
we noted as facts and questions, and what research tasks we undertook.
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Faith Healer Facts And Questions
Underlined = contested facts, Bold = answered questions
Facts
Part One: Frank Hardy
He is wearing an overcoat
He is middle-aged
The overcoat is turned up at the back and
has been slept in, suit dark, vivid green
socks
There are three rows of chairs, not more
than fifteen seats, stage left
There is a poster at the back
He puts his overcoat on one of the chairs
He is the only child of Jack and Mary Hardy
He was born in the village of Kilmeedy in
County Limerick
Jack was a sergeant of the guards
He has a manager called Teddy
Teddy is from London
He was born into showbusiness
Teddy used to tour Miss Mulatto and Her
Three Pigeons and a languid whippet who
took sounds from bagpipes
Grace is his mistress
Questions
What is the date? 1977
Where are we? A village hall.
What time is it? 8pm
What month is it? February
How old is Frank? 48
Kinlochbervie, Inverbie, Inverdruie,
Invergordon, Badachroo, Kinlochcrewe,
Ballantrae, Inverkeithing, Cawdor,
Kirkconnel, Plaidy, Kirkinner.
Do they exist? Yes, see map
What is Kilmeedy like? Southern Ireland,
inland
What is a sergeant of the guard? NonCommissioned Officer in charge of the shift
Penllech, Pencader, Dunvegan, Dunblane,
Ben Lawers, Ben Rinnes, Kirkliston, Bennane
See map
What is a mountebank? A person who sells
quack medicines in public, a charlatan
What does legati mean?
Comes from legate; meaning ambassador,
delegate, messenger
She never wanted to get married
Who is Jerome Kern? A New York song
writer who died in 1945 – his popular songs
include Ol Man River
She was tidy
Is it picturesque? Yes
They would travel in a van
What year did he return? 1965
Her surname is Dodsmith
They would arrive in the early evenings.
Place a table inside the door for the
collection. There would be an amplifying
system.
Teddy would play a Jerome Kern song
He was in the North of Scotland when he
heard his mother had had a heart attack.
In Kinlochbervie. Teddy drove him to
Glasgow.
- He had not been home in 20 years
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Character Biographies
Katie Mitchell also suggests preparing a biography for every character mentioned in
the play, no matter how minor.
‘…creating character biographies will ensure you guide the actors in the right direction
for the play and avoid both of you wasting your time going up blind alleys. Always
measure your suppositions for the past against what your character does or says in
the present action of the play. There is no point building an extraordinary past for a
character, then discovering that this colourful person cannot credibly say and do all
that they have to in the action of the play. Preparing a biography with this in mind
will help you to stop an actor from inventing a tuba-playing, ex-ice skating manic
depressive from scratch in order to make their performance ‘interesting’. The work
you do on your own is not written in stone. Details will change in response to needs
or insights from the actors in rehearsals. But you will have somewhere to start from.
Working through every character’s biography also allows you to see the play as each
actor does – through the eyes of one person. This perspective prepares you for the
concerns and interests of all the actors in the rehearsal room. It also puts you in the
shoes of each character and stops you from making simplistic value judgements.’
(Mitchell 2009:24).
You can prepare a biography by collecting all the facts from your list that pertain to
that character, and putting them in a rough chronological order. There will be little
information from the text about exact dates, so you can begin to work these out in the
simplest way possible. For instance, in Faith Healer, Grace’s monologue tells us that
she ran off with Frank the year she qualified as a solicitor. Once we have worked out
her date of birth, in this case by using other clues from the text to decide what year
the play is set and how old Grace is, we can work out when she started her degree.
We can then find out where someone from her hometown would have studied law,
how long the course would have been at that time, and how long her training contract
would have been. This tells us which year she qualified, and therefore when she ran off
with Frank. Take a look at Grace’s character biography to see what sort of information
we included.
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Grace Hardy Biography/Timeline
1933 Born.
1933 – 1951 Lives in a large house in Knockmoyle, near Omagh, County Tyrone,
Northern Ireland. Her mother, Violet, is intermittently in mental
hospitals so she is cared for by Bridie the housekeeper.
Her father is a judge.
1951 Starts university studying Law at Queen’s University, Belfast.
1955 July – graduates.
Begins articled clerkship.
1957 Summer – finishes articled clerkship and qualifies as a solicitor.
Meets Frank in a bar. Runs away with him.
December – marries Frank in a registry office.
1964 Lives in a byre (cowshed) in Sporle, near King’s Lynn,
Norfolk with Frank.
Has pleurisy.
Has two miscarriages.
Leaves Frank, goes home to Ireland. Sees her father for the last time.
Goes back to Norfolk, gets pregnant.
Father dies.
1965 July - Travels to Kinlochbervie, North West Scotland, with
Frank and Teddy in the van.
Sunday – gives birth to a stillborn baby. Buries it in a field.
1970 December 21st - Travels to Llanblethian with Frank and Teddy.
Frankcures a farmer who gives him £200. Spends four days in a
hotel in Cardiff with Frank.
1974 August 31st - Travels to Ballybeg, County Donegal with Frank
and Teddy. Sings to their audience in a pub. Frank heals a man
called Donal’s bent finger, claims he can heal their friend McGarvey,
and fails.
September 1st - Frank is killed.
Remains in Ireland with Teddy until he leaves in early December.
Late December – moves to a bedsit at number 27 Limewood Avenue,
near Paddington, London.
1975 January – gets a job working mornings in the local library.
Visits a doctor every Thursday and takes medication.
Reads books and listens to the radio.
Drinks and smokes.
September 1st – commits suicide aged 42.
21
Design Process
The text tells us little about where or when Faith Healer is set. Decisions about design
and setting were made from a combination of Friel’s instructions, clues from the text,
and creative decisions.
When?
In order to decide when the play is set, we can use clues from the text. These clues
might include the type of language used and any technology, historical or cultural
references that are mentioned. For instance, if a text mentioned that the song Night
Fever was in the charts we would know that it was set in 1978, or if a character made
reference to Facebook, we could deduce that the action is occurring after the site
was launched in February 2004. In the absence of these clues, we can make educated
guesses.
Only one date is mentioned in Faith Healer, when Teddy tells us that his act Miss
Mulatto’s pigeons died in 1947. Teddy is now ‘in his late fifties’ (353), and we can
assume that he was at least twenty-one when he began managing acts, so the earliest
that we could set his speech is 1968. The play was first performed in 1979, so we can
assume that it was written in the late 1970’s. We decided to set the play at the time
of writing in 1977, which fitted well with other information about the timing of events
from the text and did not jar with the technology and cultural references mentioned.
Where?
At the beginning of each monologue, Friel gives a little description of the set.
PART ONE (Frank)
‘Three rows of chairs – not more than fifteen seats in all – occupy one third of the
acting area stage left. These seats are at right-angles to the audience.
On the backdrop is a large poster:
The Fantastic Francis Hardy
Faith Healer
One Night Only
This poster is made of some fabric, linen perhaps, and is soiled and abused.’ (331).
PART TWO (Grace)
‘…the same set as Part One, with the rows of seats removed… a wooden chair beside
a small table on which are ashtrays, packets of cigarettes, the remains of a bottle of
whiskey, a glass.’ (341).
PART THREE (Teddy)
‘…the same small table as in Part Two; but TEDDY’s chair is more comfortable than
GRACE’s… an old record player and a very abused record… a small locker – like a
hospital locker… Beside this locker is an empty dog-basket. 22
The poster is in the same position as Part One and Part Two.’ (353 – 354).
PART FOUR (Frank)
‘The poster is gone. The set is empty except for the single chair across which lies
Frank’s coat exactly as he left it in Part One.’ (370)
The extra chairs and poster in the set for Part One seem to suggest that we are at one
of Frank’s performances, which we know from the text happen in ‘kirks or meeting
houses or schools’ (332) in remote locations around the country. The sets for Part
Two and Three seem to be domestic spaces. In Part Three, Teddy says ‘…this here is
Limewood Grove’ (369), near Paddington, London. We know that he has ‘an empty
dog-basket’ there, which presumably belonged to his dog which he tells us died
several years ago, and a record player. Therefore we can assume that Part Three is set
in Teddy’s home in London. Teddy tells us that he found the poster outside Grace’s
‘digs’ (369) nearby, so as the poster is present along with various domestic detritus
in Part Two, we can assume that this monologue is set in Grace’s ‘bedsitter’ (342),
which we discover from Teddy is also near Paddington. The set for Part Four is more
ambiguous, as the single chair and lack of poster give us few clues as to where Frank
is. However, as we already know that he is dead, and as the end of the monologue
seems to suggest some sort of spiritual epiphany that goes beyond the material world,
we decided to try and create a transcendent space for the ending.
Set
In order to design the set, we must think about where and when each monologue
takes place, and how we can create all of these spaces within the theatre.
The Space
Bristol Old Vic Studio is a versatile space. The shape is an elongated octagon with two
long sides. The space can accommodate many seating configurations, including in
the round, in traverse, in thrust or end-on. A raked seating bank can be built for endon performances, seats and benches can be situated around the edges in the round,
or the seats can be removed altogether for promenade performances. The audience
can also sit on the balcony. The versatility of the space allows plenty of freedom in the
design for Studio shows.
10. EXERCISE
Using all the information provided, draw or describe your vision of the set for Faith
Healer in the Studio.
23
Interview with the Designer
Designer Mike Britton talks about the design process for Faith Healer.
What were your initial thoughts when you read Faith Healer?
On first reading Faith Healer it struck me how wonderfully complete and real Frank,
Grace and Teddy are. Friel’s brilliant depiction of the same story from the three
different perspectives constantly leaves you questioning what actually happened
between them. It was clear to me from the start that the environment of the play,
although needing to reflect the harsh, bleak and very real lives of the characters,
also needed to be lifted from the ordinary. We needed to create a broken but
transcendent space.
What sources have you looked at for research and inspiration?
I gathered lots of images of remote Welsh churches and halls, as well as more
contemporary photographs of abandoned and derelict buildings. I also looked at
photographs of the Scottish and Irish landscapes from the 1950s and 60s by Paul
Strand and Dorothea Lange.
What is your current vision of how the design for Faith Healer will look?
We are staging Faith Healer in the versatile Studio space of the Old Vic, so the play
does not have to be presented with a conventional end-on staging. I am currently
exploring turning the whole Studio into the environment of the play. The audience
and the actors will share the same space and sit on the same chairs, to create a more
intimate connection with the story and the lives portrayed within it.
24
Past Productions
Faith Healer was first performed on Broadway in 1979, where its dense monologue
style was poorly received by action-hungry American theatregoers, and it closed after
just twenty performances.
1979
The Longacre Theatre New York (Broadway), director
Jose Quintero
1983
The Vineyard Theatre New York (off Broadway), director
Dann Florek
1994
The Long Wharf Theatre Connecticut, director Joe Dowling
‘incandescent’ - The New York Times
Dec 2001 – Jan 2002
Almeida Theatre London, director Jonathan Kent
Feb – April 2006
May 2006
The Gate Theatre Dublin, director Jonathan Kent
transferred to The Booth Theatre New York (Broadway)
April – May 2009
Salisbury Playhouse, director Philip Wilson
Jan – Feb 2009
Aug – Sept 2009
Sept 2009
The Parade Theatre Sydney, director Robin Lefevre
transferred to The King’s Theatre Edinburgh
returned to The Gate Theatre, Dublin
Ralph Fiennes as Frank
Hardy, The Booth
Theatre 2006.
Salisbury Playhouse 2009.
Ian McDiarmid as Teddy,
The Booth Theatre 2006.
Cherry Jones as
Grace Hardy,
The Booth Theatre 2006.
Part of The Gate Theatre’s Brian Friel
retrospective festival, with Afterplay
and The Yalta Game, The Parade Theatre 2009.
25
SUGGESTED PRACTICAL EXERCISES
Suggested by Chris Stafford
Warm-up
To prepare the whole group to work practically by raising energy levels
and increasing focus.
Everyone walk around the room. If your normal walking pace is 100%, walk at 110%.
Start to be aware of the space; try to fill any gaps that appear. Try not to simply walk
in a circle; cross the space and change direction. Start to become aware of the other
people in the space; make eye contact with them as they pass, and smile. Try to
maintain a ‘bubble of space’ the size of your arm span around yourself at all times.
Listen for the commands, and do as they dictate immediately: ‘stop’, ‘go’, ‘jump’,
‘clap’. Practice these a few times until you can do them with no delay. Now the
commands take on the opposite meaning: ‘stop’ means ‘go’, ‘jump’ means ‘clap’ and
vice versa. Practice this several times. Remind the class to maintain their awareness
of the space, the other people around them, and their ‘bubble of space’ at all times.
Start to eliminate people who perform the wrong action or hesitate. Ask them to sit
at the front of the space and watch the others. Remind them of the importance of
honesty; if they hesitate or make a mistake and no-one notices, it is their responsibility
to leave the space. The exercise continues until only one person is left in the space. If
necessary further actions can be added, such as ‘roll’ and ‘lift’.
Character Thoughts
An exercise to aid understanding of how grammar and punctuation in the writing
inform, or relate to the character’s thought process.
2a. Take a copy of Extract 3 each. Stand in a line along the back of the space, facing
forwards. Read the text aloud, from ‘I beg your pardon…’ to ‘…I don’t mock’, walking
forwards as you do so. Every time there is a full stop in the text, turn right.
2b. Repeat the exercise, but this time turn right every time any punctuation is used.
2c. Go through the same section from Extract 3, and mark the text with a slash each
time you think Frank starts a new thought. Repeat the walking exercise, turning right
every time the character’s thought changes. Does the punctuation fall in the same
place as the changes of thought? How often does the character’s thought change?
Whose line is it anyway?
An exercise to identify subtext in the writing, and explore the difference between
what the character thinks and what they say.
Go through Extract 10 in pairs, and write down what you think Teddy is thinking as
he says each line. One person take the extract, and the other the thoughts. Read out
lines alternately, with the line from the text followed by the corresponding thought.
How much do the thoughts differ from the lines? How can we tell what Teddy is really
thinking from the text?
26
Pointing
An exercise to explore how much each character speaks about themselves and others.
Work in a group of three. Go through Extracts 2, 5 and 6, and identify all the nouns
and proper names. Take one character each and read their extract. As you say each
noun or proper name, point to yourself if the character is talking about themselves, at
the other people in the group if the text mentions their character, and away from you
if the character mentions someone else. How much does your character talk about
themselves, and how much do they mention other people? What could this tell you
about the character?
Questioning
An exercise to aid the development of commitment and confidence in performance.
Work in pairs. Choose an extract from the text each. Take it in turns to read. When
you are listening to the other person read, question them about each line, asking
‘what?’ or ‘why?’. The person who is being questioned must repeat the line until the
questioner is convinced. How does this affect the way you deliver the lines? Can you
apply this the next time you perform?
Duologue
Work in pairs. Choose an extract from the text, and read it aloud together, taking
alternate lines. How does the text work as a duologue? Did you discover anything
about the character or the writing?
Tactics
An exercise to reveal a character’s intentions.
Work in a group of 4 or 5. Split Extract 9 into sections of roughly five lines, and take
one section each. Read through the section and decide what you think the character is
trying to do to the listener with each line; the words you choose should be verbs. Now
assign a physical action to match each word. For instance, the verb could be ‘hooking’
and the action a beckoning motion, or the verb could be ‘blocking’ and the action
holding a palm up as if halting someone. Read your section to the group with the
actions. What does this reveal about the character’s intentions?
Me Tarzan, You Jane
An exercise to distil the meaning of each line.
Work as a whole class, sitting in a circle. Read Extract 2, taking one line each. Now
choose the three words from your line that you think are the most important. Read the
extract again, using only those three words. Does this communicate the full meaning
of the passage? Why are the other words there?
27
EXTRACTS FROM THE TEXT
28
29
30
31
FURTHER READING
Primary Texts
Friel, B. (1996) Faith Healer in Plays: One, London: Faber and Faber
Secondary Texts
Delaney, P. (2000) Brian Friel in Conversation, US: University of Michigan Press
Devinney, K. (1999) Monologue as Dramatic Action in Brian Friel’s ‘Faith Healer’ and
‘Molly Sweeney’, in Twentieth Century Literature, Spring, http://findarticles.com/p/
articles/mi_m0403/is_1_45/ai_54895478/pg_3/?tag=content;col1 (accessed 28th
November 2010)
Mitchell, K. (2009) The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre,
Abingdon: Routledge
Pine, R. (1990) Brian Friel and Ireland’s Drama, London: Routledge
32