Faith Healer, Donmar Warehouse

When Irish playwright Brian Friel died at the age of 86 in October 2015, tributes poured in honouring the author of over 30 plays, including Translations, Tony and Olivier award-winning Dancing with Lughnasa and definitive adpations of Ibsen and Chekov, as one of our greatest literary talents.
And now, for the Spring 2016 season, the Donmar is reviving Faith Healer, the late playwright's masterful, monologue-filled celebration of story-telling.
Back in 2011, after a five star Bristol Old Vic revival, Faith Healer was hailed a modern masterpiece. The play also enraptured on Broadway in a production starring Ralph Fiennes but hasn't been performed in London for over a decade.
It tells the story of self-proclaimed faith healer Frank Hardy, who travelled to the furthest reaches of the British Isles promising to ease suffering and cure ailments (with varying degrees of success).
The tale of this extraordinary gift is told from Frank first hand, then by his long-suffering wife Grace and faithful manager Teddy, in a series of four monologues.
It sounds like a wordy, repetitive prospect but Friel's script weaves deft humour, warmth and poignance. And each perspective comes with its own take on truth, inviting the audience to piece together their own version of events. Within this the story of this volatile gift of spiritual healing, there's a metaphor for the nature of art and creation that is set to be particularly poignant in the first revival following the playwright's death.
Having helmed the Donmar's 'exemplary' five star revival of Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come! in 2012 Lyndsey Turner is a stellar choice to direct this revival. And actor Stephen Dillane, who will play Frank, is equally adept with the subtelties of performing Friel, having starred in The National Theatre's Dancing in Lughnasa. His impressive stage credentials include Katie Mitchell's production of Beckett's Endgame and Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, for which Dillane went on to win a Tony on Broadway. He is also TV regular with a stint in Game of Thrones and an Emmy-winning role in drama The Tunnel. He will be joined by Gina McKee, a stage and screen regular with roles spanning Richard Curtis' Notting Hill and the Donmar's smash hit production of King Lear.