The Gamm Starts New Year With Brian Friel's Haunting FAITH HEALER

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) opens the new year with a limited-run of Faith Healer by celebrated Irish playwright Brian Friel.

In a series of monologues both profound and poetic, this masterwork tells the tale of an itinerant faith healer performing in the forgotten corners of the British Isles. Unfolding in spellbinding revelations, Faith Healer explores truth and myth making, and the role of the artist in society.

Donnla Hughes, recently seen on stage at The Gamm as Yevgenia in Describe the Night, directs Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella as "the fantastic Frank Hardy;" Jeanine Kane (Nora in A Doll's House, Part 2) as his wife, Grace; and Brandon Whitehead (Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream) as his manager, Teddy. Born and raised in Ireland, Hughes said she is thrilled to direct a play by the late Friel, one of the leading Irish dramatists of his generation.

"Friel's plays provided some of my earliest encounters with theatre and are tightly woven into my imagination. He draws his characters with such striking precision and humanity that you feel as though you've always known them," Hughes said. "In Faith Healer, his exploration of what it means to be an artist is profound. Having grappled with this concept myself for many years, it's invigorating to return to this play! Faith Healer is a deeply personal experience in that each person will receive it differently. It's a privilege to help bring this masterful work to an audience."

Faith Healer runs from January 12-29 only at The Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, R.I. Tickets: $55-$65; preview performances (Jan. 12-15) just $38. Information about Friday night pay-what-you-wish rush tickets, as well as discounts for seniors, students, groups and more at gammtheatre.org/discounts. Tickets: 401-723-4266 or gammtheatre.org/faith.

A modern masterpiece by the acclaimed Irish author of Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa, Friel's play weaves together the stories of an erratic, itinerant faith healer with those of his embittered but loving wife and his weary stage manager. In lyrical monologues, the characters deliver conflicting versions of "the fantastic Francis Hardy's" performances, while slowly revealing a terrible event at the story's center.

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