BY CHRISTINA TASCON

In an intimate setting with the actors just yards from the audience, Faith Healer asks those listening to the tales of three characters to choose the version they believe to be the truth.

This is a serious dramatic play–intense, emotional and designed for the audience to be a part of it by coming to their own conclusions.

The story takes place in the lyrical towns of Scotland and Ireland which are recited as if a religious incantation throughout the play.

Following the lives of the lead character, Francis Hardy (Frank); his high strung wife Grace (Gracie) and their faithful manager Teddy,  each have a story to tell of the highs and lows of their time together.

The cast is truly mesmerizing and flawless.  Sitting within eye contact of audience members, they seemed to draw out the gaze of each person to form a connection–perhaps to convince them of their own story’s veracity.

Three individual characters with their skewed version of events, told in their own style and time.  Each contradicting each other, each focusing on the view from inside their reality.

When I first heard that this was to be the style of the play, I thought that it might get tedious hearing the same story over and again through the eyes of the three characters.

The show proved far from that and each monologue was in fact completely riveting.  Each minor discrepancy took on immeasurable significance to form the truth as each related to it.

Frank played by Colin Lane is at times wryly funny alternating with showing the deep torment he experiences from his inability to grasp and predict his successes and failures to cure his followers.

His two monologues act as the bookends of the four act play which was written by famed Irish playwright Brian Friel.

On a stark stage punctuated with empty chairs and the one constant banner advertising “The Fantastic Francis Hardy Faith Healer,” hanging above their heads like the cross of a church, Lane begins alone on the stage.

Constantly bending the truth to suit his needs, the one unaltered fact is that he knows he had certain successes in his past.  This seems to only have confused him further in knowing whether he held a certain “extraterrestrial gift” or his successes were nothing more than “mass auto-suggestion.”

Frank carries a newsprint article with him constantly of one of his biggest triumphs to verify curing ten followers in one night.

His “gift” is his ultimate fatal undoing in the end to not just his life but also to Grace’s as well.

Grace, played by Laurie Dawn, is so disturbingly real that she leaves you as “drained of your sustenance” as is the character by her husband’s cruel and twisted emotional abuse.

It is revealed that she was once a child of a wealthy barrister and was swept away to live a bleak life of squalor following her husband on his mission.  Her obsession with him even through his “erasion” of her is powerfully portrayed by Dawn and will certainly resonate more with the women in the audience than the men.

Grace’s emotional torment leaves nerves a bit raw but Lucius Houghton in the 3rd act as Teddy, is like the calming waters over a newly opened wound.

His version of events, although a bit tainted by his love of Frank and Gracie, seems to hold the most honesty and reveal his friend’s/client’s true personalities.

He sees the faith healing as what it is, a performance, but still recognizes the power that Frank holds on occasion.  His funny, Cockney accent is charming and his “philosophy” is the most light and funny of the show.

As he guzzles an amazing number of bottles of beer, his deep seated emotions begin to seep out as if sneaking onto the stage.  It is just as revealing as Grace’s stark outpouring of grief, frustration and torment.

Danger of the final sad conclusion is hinted at throughout each character’s monologue and grows steadily more ominous like a storm in the distance bringing the audience along to be drenched in the deluge.

Riverside Theatre has brought Vero Beach a significant and thoughtful gift filled with the opportunity to witness an incredible dramatic performance by three stunning actors.  It is well worth buying a ticket and taking a peek into the mind of this great Irish playwright’s head.

Applause goes to Director/Producer Allen D. Cornell who also designed the set; the period Costumes by Angela Hooper; the haunting Lighting Design by Rob Siler which added so much to the ambience and Stage Manager Kyle Atkins.

Tickets are on sale now and the show will be on the Waxlax Stage only until April 14th so be sure to get your tickets soon so you do not miss this opportunity.

Riverside Theatre’s Box Office may be contacted at 772-231-6990 or visit the web site at http://www.RiversideTheatre.com.