A profound, harrowing excavation of the past that stands amongst Brian Friel's masterpieces.

Faith healer - faith healing. A craft without an apprenticeship, a ministry without responsibility, a vocation without a ministry.

Frank Hardy, a travelling healer, offers the promise of redemption to the sick. But his is an unreliable gift, a dangerous calling, bringing him into conflict with his wife, Grace, and his manager, Teddy.

Faith Healer premiered at the Longacre Theatre, New York, 1979.

'The night of Faith Healer is one that still blazes in recollection for me, as religious experiences of art do. And it became a sort of touchstone for me . . . for defining the elusiveness of great art and the pain of the artist who creates it.' BEN BRANTLEY, NEW YORK TIMES

'The writing is beautiful, supple, rhythmical, charged with the slow, sure throb of despair and enchantment . . . Brian Friel is the most profound and poetic of contemporary Irish dramatists.' Observer

Brian Friel (9 January 1929 - 2 October 2015) wrote thirty plays across six decades and is widely regarded as one of Ireland's greatest dramatists. He was a member of Aosdána, the society of Irish artists, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Irish Academy of Letters, and the Royal Society of Literature where he was made a Companion of Literature. He was awarded the Ulysses Medal by University College, Dublin. His plays include Dancing at Lughnasa (winner of three Tony Awards including Best Play, New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, Olivier Award for Best Play), Translations, Faith Healer, and Philadelphia Here I Come!