Brian Friel’s story of an Irish itinerant priest’s life, spiritual redemption and violent death is told in four long, compelling monologues: two by the priest (Stephen Dillane) and two by his devoted and constantly humiliated wife (Gena McKee) and his jaunty beer-drinking manager (Ron Cook) who accompanies them. Each of them covers the same events, but there are important differences. Their memories play them false. Friel, eloquent and elegiac, is a great storyteller and the actors are the more pungent for addressing the audience directly. Nobody will want to leave the theatre until they know what really happened in the pub.
The priest, part showman, part charlatan, tours outposts in Wales and Scotland in a series of one-night stands in derelict halls. He possesses a gift for miracles over which he cannot control and which he cannot understand. On one occasion, to his amazement, he healed ten people in one go. He walks away from his stillborn baby (born in the back of his travelling van) knowing he has lost his gift and is unable to bring the baby back to life. The haunting production is by Lyndsey Turner and the monologues are impeccably delivered by the actors.