Since its inception from renowned playwright Brian Friel in 1979, ‘Faith Healer’ has been revamped half a dozen times, audiences captivated by its strange handling of how ‘truth’ can truly differentiate from one person to another.
The latest incarnation is about to hit Sydney and Alison Whyte is playing the sole female character, Grace.
“So far it’s been very exciting. I think that was the toughest first read I’ve ever done! I don’t know why but because of the big read, it’s quite daunting to sit down and read it to a group of people who you don’t know. Once we are up and know it and are in the skin of these characters it’ll be a different story because we’ll be in control of it.”
The play focuses around three characters; Francis, played by Colin Friels who is the healer, Teddy (Pip Miller) and Grace. Four different monologues are presented with that character's version of events.
“I’ve seen a few of Brian Friel’s plays, I’ve never actually been in one, but boy that bloke can write! There’s not a dash, a dot, a comma that’s out of place in this play. It is an extraordinary piece of writing. So I hope we can do it justice.”
Image © Brett Boardman“The writer hints at things, and as an actor you have a choice to go with it, but we keep flipping around as to who is telling the truth and who’s not. For an audience member watching it I think they are going to have very different opinions which is so skilful.”
Alison does concede that performing a monologue is more challenging than working onstage with others.
Image © Brett Boardman“It’s a different thing presenting to an audience by yourself than doing a team sport kind of thing. With this play, it’s not just one story, it’s three, but they’re all interwoven and it’s a very generous play because really the audience gets to make up their own individual truth after hearing the evidence of all three characters. They get to come up with a different conclusion as to whose version make up the actual event.”
Alison has been performing for the theatre since the early ‘90s, but TV viewers may recognise her more from shows like ‘The Doctor Blake Mysteries’ and ‘Glitch’. Years of performing have brought around a personal taste for finely crafted works such as this one.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and you do get a good feeling for certain projects because the writing is so good. We’re story tellers, and this a great story because it’s emotional and it’s a very human piece. This is the sort of writing that you live to perform as an actor. This is the spiritual food for an actor.”
