The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
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Death of a snake oil salesman
PETER MASON applauds a pitch-perfect production of the late Brian Friel’s compelling study of gullability and disillusion
ALEX HALL is intrigued by a detailed history of Gaza that demonstrates its historic resilience and changing economy
RON JACOBS welcomes the long overdue translation of an epic work that chronicles resistance to fascism during WWII
MAYER WAKEFIELD is chilled by the co-dependency of two lost souls as portrayed by German communist playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz
The Star's critics BRETT GREGORY, JOHN GREEN, MICHAEL BONCZA and ANGUS REID review The Stimming Pool, Misericordia, La Cocina, Irena’s Vow, and The End
CHRIS MOSS welcomes a radical history that brings marginalised stories and overlooked people and agencies to the centre
ANDREW HEDGECOCK relishes visual storytelling with no respect for genres, movements or styles
Faith Healer
Lyric Hammersmith, London
PATRICK MAGEE, Helen Mirren and Stephen Lewis were the heavyweight cast in the first London production of Faith Healer at the Royal Court back in 1981, but it’s difficult to believe they could have been any better than Declan Conlon, Justine Mitchell and Nick Holder in this new interpretation.
Brian Friel’s mesmerising three-handed monologue is a gift for any self-respecting set of actors, but its lyrical beauty still has to be delivered – and under the typically sure-footed direction of Rachel O’Riordan this triumvirate does that in spades.
It’s a production of such wonderful intensity that it feels like the definitive interpretation, one that Friel might have wished for.
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