Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Powerful digital revivals of Brian Friel’s FAITH HEALER and MOLLY SWEENEY reveal a master at work

• By drediman
• January 27, 2021
• No Comments

I recently had the opportunity to stream a pair of exceptionally acted Brian Friel plays, Faith Healer and Molly Sweeney. Experiencing these ravishing – albeit slow-burning – shows back-to-back revealed a master working at the peak of his powers. Watching these revivals, I was reminded once again of the late Irish playwright’s love affair with language and his talent for engaging in profound intellectual debates within the framework of engrossing storytelling. Additionally, because both works are structured essentially as interlocking monologues, they’re ideally suited to the kind of stripped-down aesthetic afforded by Zoom productions (which isn’t often the case).

FAITH HEALER
The Old Vic

I had missed last year’s all-too-brief run of the Old Vic’s production of Faith Healer (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which was presented as part of the company’s acclaimed In Camera series. Thankfully, the iconic London theater has brought back the virtual but richly theatrical revival for a strictly limited time. Widely considered one of the playwright’s indisputable masterpieces, the 1979 play tells the story of Francis Hardy, a self-ordained “faith healer”, and his travels through the Welsh, Scottish, and Irish countrysides as he peddles his extraordinary but unreliable gift. The tale is told from the inconsistent perspectives of three complicated characters – Francis, Grace (his wife), and Teddy (his manager) – over the course of four candidly delivered monologues (the show is powerfully bookended by Francis). What makes Friel’s play so special is how ardently it philosophically explores the notion of truth – regardless of whose turn it is on the soapbox – without sacrificing any of the play’s ample atmosphere and authenticity. As the flawed titular miracle worker, a shaggily unrecognizable Michael Sheen is superb, exuding the sort of captivating charm and intensity you’d expect from such a wandering salesman. As his exasperated but loyal wife and jovial manager, respectively, Indira Varma and David Threlfall give lived-in performances of exquisite specificity without falling victim to caricature.

MOLLY SWEENEY
Irish Repertory Theatre

When Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney (RECOMMENDED) premiered in 1994, it suffered from unfavorable comparisons to the aforementioned masterwork. To be fair, both share remarkably similar structural and thematic features, making such juxtapositions all but inevitable. The work centers on the play’s namesake, a blind woman who, at the behest of her husband and eye doctor, pursues ophthalmologic surgery to partially restore her vision. Suffice to say, things don’t turn out as well as the trio of characters would like. Like Faith Healer, the play is conveyed via confessional monologues, thereby providing a Rashomon-like view of the work’s central events. Although Molly Sweeney does seem less effortlessly evocative than the other work – perhaps because the shifts in character perspectives occur more frequently, disrupting the play’s hypnotic spell – it’s nonetheless a haunting meditation on the fragility of the realities we create for ourselves. The return of Irish Rep’s digital revival, which yesterday kicked off the Off-Broadway theater company’s Theatre @ Home Winter Festival, is strongly-acted and altogether rewarding. In the capable hands of Geraldine Hughes, Ciarán O’Reilly, and Paul O’Brien (the former two appeared in Irish Rep’s 2011 physical staging), the play goes down very smoothly; they even manage to make work’s occasional tangents – which tried my patience in past productions – entertaining.