Tag Archives: Brian Friel

Aristocrats

Donmar Warehouse, London ***
Review by Carole Woddis of performance seen Aug 10, 2018:

© Johan Persson, David Ganly (centre), Aisling Loftus (right), Emmet Kirwan (Eamon) - picnic, Ballybeg Hall style...

© Johan Persson, David Ganly (centre), Aisling Loftus (right), Emmet Kirwan (Eamon) – picnic, Ballybeg Hall style…

Amazing to think it’s nearly forty years, 1979, since Brian Friel wrote Aristocrats and thirteen years (2005) since the National revived it in a Tom Cairns production which included a budding Andrew Scott. Continue reading

Faith Healer

Donmar Warehouse, London (****)

&copy, Johan Persson, Stephen Dillane as Frank, the faith healer

&copy, Johan Persson, Stephen Dillane as Frank, the faith healer

Brian Friel’s Faith Healer (1979) is regarded as one of his best, if not the best of an amazing body of work. With its shaggy dog tales, its incantatory, metaphorical dream-like quality, guilt and exploration of the strange alchemical process that can produce miracles – spiritual or creative – its own magic lies in the close proximity of word and character with atmosphere. Continue reading