First Ever English Regional Production of Friel's FAITH HEALER

New Perspectives will present the first ever English rural touring production of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. It will open at Derby Assembly Rooms on Thursday November 5 and tour until Saturday December 12 2009.

It is directed by New Perspectives Artistic Director Daniel Buckroyd. In the cast are Martin Jenkins, Angela McGowan and Stephen Ley. Design is by Juliet Shillingford with lighting by Katherine Williams.

Frank Hardy, Faith Healer, has been on tour for twenty years, visiting villages and market towns the length and breadth of the land, accompanied by his long-suffering wife, Grace, and his smooth-talking manager, Teddy - administering help to the sick, and sometimes working miracles. But Frank's not sure of his gift, and Grace and Teddy have their own views on whether he has a gift at all.

"Faith Healer - faith healing - occasionally it worked - and when it did, when I stood before a man and placed my hands on him and watched him become whole in my presence, those were nights of exultation, of consummation."

Faith Healer was first presented on Broadway in 1979 and subsequently seen at the Abbey Dublin and Royal Court London in 1981.

Martin Jenkins (Frank Faith Healer) was Charlie in Stones In His Pocket at the Duke of York Theatre and UK tour. Angela McGowan (Grace) was in Brian Friel's Dancing At Lughnasa at the Old Vic earlier this year. She portrayed Valerie in the Scottish première of The Weir to great acclaiM. Stephen Ley (Teddy), has recently played Davies in Pinter's The Caretaker and Salter in Caryl Churchill's A Number. He has been in productions at the National, Royal Exchange and Bristol Old Vic.

The New Perspectives tour of Michael Morpurgo's Farm Boy will finish at Greenwich Theatre on Saturday October 31. Michael Morpurgo will take part in a discussion after the 4.00pm performance at Greenwich that day.