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lanternheart's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
For my reading of this book, I had read a few of the plays contained already, and what was new to me was Faith Healer.
At the heart of this final play is one's relationship with memory — and the quest for certainty, for proof of worth, that lies within it. Whether or not Frank can heal is irrelevant, what is far more the story is that which led him to not caring about it — or rather, choosing willfully to step into that which he could not heal, and leaving his lover/wife Gracie, and manager Teddy, to pick up the pieces.
The play moves fluidly within time, positioning Frank's story as a post-mortem, Gracie's seemingly leading up to her death and beyond it, and Teddy in our present. What's fascinating about this movement and discrepancy is how no one story is the same —what stands out to Frank about a remote town in Scotland is his mother's death, what he terms Gracie as his lover she knows he's his wife, that the town in Scotland is where their child was buried.
Memory is a fickle, strange beast, but each of these characters longs for a definitive piece of it — and never achieves it.
At the heart of this final play is one's relationship with memory — and the quest for certainty, for proof of worth, that lies within it. Whether or not Frank can heal is irrelevant, what is far more the story is that which led him to not caring about it — or rather, choosing willfully to step into that which he could not heal, and leaving his lover/wife Gracie, and manager Teddy, to pick up the pieces.
The play moves fluidly within time, positioning Frank's story as a post-mortem, Gracie's seemingly leading up to her death and beyond it, and Teddy in our present. What's fascinating about this movement and discrepancy is how no one story is the same —
Memory is a fickle, strange beast, but each of these characters longs for a definitive piece of it — and never achieves it.
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