A spiritual being? A charlatan? No, he’s a Faith Healer and his story his presented by the Irish Classical Theatre Company now to January 28. Written by Brian Friel, this series of four monologues delivered by three actors spinning the same yarn is intense and thought-provoking.

Director Josephine Hogan allowed the power of Friel’s words to shine. Staging and lighting were deliberately simple. Costumes were 1940s-50s period appropriate and plain. There was nothing to distract from the riveting storytelling delivered by faith healer Frank (Paul Todaro), his paramour Grace (Margaret Massman), and Frank’s manager Teddy (Vincent O’Neill) as they share their points of view around a common story.

Frank’s whole life is spent traveling the Scottish, Welsh, and only once the Irish countryside in search of audience who are gullible enough, I mean desirous of experiencing his show with its healing properties. There are the highs and lows, the rough patches and pleasures of life on the road. All three characters are charged with sharing their perspective on a particular series of events.  It’s Todaro’s opening monologue that sets this stage for the audience. With a matter of fact delivery, Todaro shares Frank’s story with a detached sort of passion: Frank’s telling a story that is sadly his own. Or should be. Or shouldn’t want to be. He comes back to deliver the closing monologue.

The next monologue is Grace’s. Massman is nonapologetic about her love for this man, whether he deserves her affections or not. She’s wounded by trauma and life with a man who will always be center stage, at her emotional expense. Oh the irony of the stage, to think that last season Massman was Linda the (dubious) spiritual medium in Road Less Traveled Production’s The Thin Place and here she is traveling about with a healer who admits to only ‘helping’ a subset of his followers.

It’s Teddy’s monologue that brings some levity to the start of Act II. He’s the raconteur of the trio, taking joy in parts of his sad story, hinting at his love, shaking his head at the lack of love in this world at times, and clearly wondering why events spun as they did. He’s unabashedly smitten with Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields’ “The Way You Love Tonight” and Fred Astaire’s rendition. O’Neill plays this with a charming, wistful sort of sadness.

ICTC devotees will recall the 2008 season when O’Neill was Frank, Hogan was Grace, and the late Gerry Maher was Teddy, with previous productions in ICTC’s earlier years.

Friel’s gift is story, the language, the deeply developed characters who command your attention by simply being in front of you. This is a production that forces you to pay attention and not drift your mind to the laundry at home or the pending projects at work, or what tomorrow’s schedule holds. Friel directs you to – like his actors – be present and fix your attention on a trio with three very different perceptions of circumstances surrounding one very flawed man.

Faith Healer runs two and a half hours with a 15-minute intermission.  Find info and  tickets at http://www.irishclassical.com.