Faith Healer

Faith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of the faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy.

The play consists of four parts, with a monologue making up each part. The monologues are given, in order, by Hardy himself; his wife, Grace; his manager, Teddy, and finally Hardy again.

The monologues tell the story of Hardy, including an incident in a Welsh village in which he cures ten people. Teddy's monologue reveals that Grace commits suicide, while Hardy ponders whether his gift is real or not. In his second monologue, it is suggested that he is killed near his home after being unable to heal a cripple. He says that he knows he will not be able to heal him and, going to face death, he feels a sense of homecoming. It is not made explicit however, that Hardy is actually killed; Friel leaves this to the reader's interpretation.

Faith Healer received its first performance on 5 April 1979 on Broadway in a production by José Quintero, with James Mason, Clarissa Kaye and Donal Donnelly. It closed after twenty performances. The first production in Ireland was at the Abbey Theatre in August 1980, in a production by Joe Dowling starring Donal McCann, Kate Flynn and John Kavanagh. The first London production was at the Royal Court Theatre in March 1981, directed by Christopher Fettes, with Patrick Magee, Helen Mirren and Stephen Lewis.

It was revived in 1983 at the Vineyard Theatre, directed by Dann Florek, with J. T. Walsh, Kathleen Chalfant and Martin Shakar. In the same year, William Needles played the title role at the University of California, Irvine. Also in the cast were Mary Anne McGarry and Keith Fowler. The show was revived under the direction of Robert Cohen for a gala presentation to the UCI Theater Guild.

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