Review by Rebecca Ting
The student-acted production currently showing at the Burton Taylor Theatre is a seamless and mature response to a challenging script. The play, in the form of four monologues, provides a chronicle of a series of events from three different characters with conflicting viewpoints: Frank Hardy – Faith Healer - his troubled wife Grace, and Teddy, his mentor and manager. One by one describe their experiences of travelling round Britain, and the impact of Frank’s sporadic healing abilities on their lives. Each character is painfully conscious of their individual problems, yet is powerless to steer themselves in any direction but tragedy. The three actors (Richard Darbourne, Polly Findlay, and Ilan Goodman) were faultless throughout, each keeping the audience enthralled over the course of a twenty-minute monologue through the sheer force of emotion in the delivery. Emerging from the darkness into the spotlight at the beginning, Darbourne’s interpretation of Frank is immediately the showman, building instant rapport with the audience, and even welcoming the real-life latecomers, with "Come along folks, there are still seats at the front!" Findlay is disturbingly convincing in her portrayal of his suffering and neurotic wife, whilst Goodman, as Teddy, moves superbly between the comic accounts of his bagpipe-playing dog, and despairing meditations on his relationship with the couple. Despite the fact that the three characters are never onstage together, the prickling intensity of their performances creates tension between their conflicting accounts. The audience, not knowing whose account to believe, is constantly required to interpret and reconcile the different viewpoints for themselves. The intimacy of the theatre was ideal for the confidential nature of the play, and created the perfect atmosphere for this superbly-acted production. Faith Healer as a play provides a challenge for both the actors and the audience, and this production is well-worth watching.
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