Renowned director David Thacker has assembled an impressive cast for his production of Brian Friel's play Faith Healer at The King's Arms, Salford next week (January 15-19).
Voted one of the most significant plays of the 20th Century, Thacker and his team hope to mimic their success at the King's Arms last year with David Mamet's American Buffalo.
In the latest play. Frank Hardy, his partner Grace and their manager have spent years travelling in a small van to remote villages in Wales and Scotland, hoping to find an audience for Frank’s apparently miraculous healing. In a series of monologues, their accounts often contradict as they share the troubled thoughts and unresolved mysteries of their lives.
The three-strong cast's members are Vicky Binns as Grace (Emmerdale, Coronation Street; Singin' In The Rain); Colin Connor as Frank (American Buffalo, Warhorse and more than 20 productions at Bolton Octagon and a Manchester Theatre Awards best actor winner), and Rupert Hill as manager Teddy (Casualty, Eastenders, Coronation Street, Death of a Salesman, his own play Husk, The Full Monty, and 25 plays for BBC Radio).
David Thacker said: "American Buffalo was an extremely satisfying and creative experience. and we shared a wish to bring to life another great play, that may be unknown to young or first-time theatregoers. The King's - a small, friendly pub theatre on the border of Manchester and Salford, within walking distance of Manchester city centre - was the perfect theatre.
"Faith Healer is equally challenging and I am delighted to be working again with Colin and Vicky and to work for the first time with Rupert. We all feel it's a great privilege and huge responsibility to bring this wonderful play to life."
David Thacker is an award-winning theatre, film, and television director, currently Professor of Theatre and Film at the University of Greater Manchester in Bolton.
A former artistic director of the Young Vic, the Duke’s Playhouse Lancaster, the Octagon in Bolton and as a director-in-residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company, among his many awards are two Oliviers, a TMA award and a Theatre Writers Guild new writing encouragement award. At the 2016 Manchester Theatre Awards his productions received six trophies including all the major acting awards and best production. He has directed for BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and WGBH in Boston.
Faith Healer is a co-production from Rising Moon Productions and Form and Pressure, whose members are developing a verbatim play, That Can’t Have Happened, sharing the experiences of women survivors of domestic abuse, which they plan to produce at The King’s Arms later this year.
More info and tickets here