Were Dublin Critics Restored by B'way-Bound Faith Healer?

Brian Friel's Faith Healer will begin performances at Broadway's Booth Theatre on April 18 with Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid. But before it hits New York, the production, directed by Jonathan Kent, is playing at Dublin's Gate Theatre with its two male stars Ingrid Craigie is playing the female lead in place of Jones during the engagement. Did local critics think the production cured all ills?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Karen Fricker of Variety: "Twenty-seven years after its unsuccessful world premiere at Broadway's Longacre Theater, Brian Friel's powerful monologue play Faith Healer may finally be ready for its Gotham closeup. The combination of top-line talent; a masterful production from Jonathan Kent that embraces and exploits the play's unusual structure; and auds now more familiar with postmodern storytelling forms portend a positive New York reaction. The only significant problem in this initial Dublin outing--a weak distaff lead--seems likely to be immaterial given that Cherry Jones will take over from Ingrid Craigie when the production opens May 4 at the Booth… The power of play and production lie in the interplay between the three characters' often contradictory accounts of the same events."

Charles Spencer of The Telegraph: "Ralph Fiennes gives a compelling and haunted performance as Frank Hardy… And he receives tremendous support from Ingrid Craigie as his loyal and fiercely-loving wife Grace, and Ian McDiarmid who offers a tour de force as his delightfully garrulous cockney manager, Teddy. Right from the start of Jonathan Kent's gripping production we gather that something terrible has happened, as first Frank, then Grace, and then Teddy tell their versions of their itinerant lives together. And then, in the stunningly beautiful final monologue, once again narrated by Frank, Friel seems to usher us into the very heart of mortality."

John Murray Brown of The Financial Times: "[The Faith Healer] is still probably the Irish playwright's least accessible play… As ever with Friel, the play is a celebration of language. But it is also a hilarious account of low life on the road… The structure allows Friel to meditate on some of his favourite themes: the imperfections of memory, tensions between private and public history, and the nature of art. Indeed the faith healer's constant self- questioning becomes a discourse on the nature of the creative process itself. The central role was played by James Mason in its unsuccessful US launch, and more recently by the late Donal McCann and Barry McGovern, two great Irish actors. Fiennes brings a different sort of intensity to Frank's brooding angry character. But perhaps the real greatness of the play is that Friel has created three wonderful characters, each of whom would merit star rating in a lesser work."