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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
DEFINITIVE: Nick Holder in Faith Healer
[Marc Brenner]
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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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