The
Lantern Theater Company is presenting Faith Healer through
Sunday, March 3, 2024, at St. Stephen’s Theater in Center City Philadelphia. The
play is a series of monologues in which each character relates a story from
their perspective. The drama is surprising , but even more astounding are the diverse
accounts for the same events. Frank Hardy ( Ian Merrill Peakes) is a Faith Healer
who doesn’t always have faith in his ability to heal. He is accompanied on his British
Isles tour by his manager Teddy ( Anthony Lawton) and Grace, (Genevieve Perrier), whom he refers
to as his mistress. Frank frequently finds comfort in the bottle and can be verbally
abusive to Grace. Grace’s monologue is an eye-opener. She resents Frank and
calls him a liar for referring to her as his mistress rather than his wife. After
seven years on the road with him and his abuses, Grace returns home to face her ailing father
who cannot forgive the fact that she gave up a promising career in the legal field to run away with Frank. She tells of fleeing her father’s house and returning home to Frank where she gets
pregnant and delivers a stillborn 9 months later in Scotland .The end of this
second monologue foreshadows the end of the fourth. Gracie yells to come quick to see Frank. Teddy
(Anthony Lawton) is the Faith Healer’s promoter and begins the third monologue.
He sells tickets for the events and
tries to have large audiences of people who need to be healed. He tells of one
night that had 10 cures by the Faith Healer although he wasn’t sure if it was the
actual cure or the audience’s faith that promoted the cures. Teddy’s love for Grace
is evident as he relates her child labor in Scotland and his calling out to
Frank who runs away up a hillside. Teddy laments a father-to be leaving Grace and
when the child is still-born, he follows her directions; buries the child; and
marks the spot with a small wooden cross. In the fourth monologue, Frank is
warned to leave a pub where he had bragged that he could heal someone in a
wheelchair. He was told if he didn’t cure the man, the crowd would kill him. He
said he would wait for the wheelchair to arrive. Lights out. The three actors portraying Frank, Grace and
Teddy are among the best in their field. Anthony Lawton has perfected the
monologue with his productions of Charles Dicken’ A Christmas Carol, but
Ian Merrill Peakes and Genvieve Perrier give excellent performances as well. For
more information or tickets, call 215-829-0395 or visit online at www.lanterntheater.org.
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