As a rule, I’m a longtime opponent of plays that consist entirely of monologues. For me, great playwriting lives in the sense of interaction—and how this is melded into storytelling through a harmonic conversion of multiple voices. Obviously, the larger the dramatis personae, the more challenging it is for the writer… but also, the more gripping for the audience.

Three characters, all of whom address the audience in long solo passages, seemed like cheating… or more generously, like a step along the way in learning how to construct a play.

Well, so much for preconceptions. Brian Friel’s superb Faith Healer, now here in Philadelphia in an equally superb prodution at Lantern Theater, almost instantly cured me of my prejudice.

To be sure, it follows exactly the schematic I noted above, with one unusual variation: there is a fourth monologue for Francis, the faith healer himself, who both opens and closes the play. But nothing about Faith Healer is minimalist, including (with an intermission) its 2 hour 30 minutes-plus running time—every minute of which is edge-of-your seat riveting.

I now have the challenge of urging you to see this extraordinary show while also revealing little about it. Faith Healer would likely not be characterized as a “mystery”—but it is indeed mysterious and ambiguous, and the twists should be kept quiet.

So just a few details. Francis is… was… a faith healer who practices his craft largely in theatrical exhibitions in and around Wales and Ireland. The time period, like much of Faith Healer, is deliberately blurry, but the monologues are memories recalled from a year or so later. Along with Francis, we meet Grace, his partner/wife, who sardonically remembers their complex and troubled relationship; and also Teddy, Francis’s stage manager, a show-business schmoozer, whose nostalgic stories turn gradually, inexorably darker.

I’m going to leave the plot details at that. As I said, it’s a gripping story that should be discovered without knowing too much about it.

On a deeper note, Friel’s play simultaneously honors the great Irish theatrical tradition, and also blows it up. Themes of loss, forbearance, nostalgia for a better time that may never really have existed, and the general question of “why?”—all of these pay homage to O’Casey and others. (There’s also plenty of ale; another beloved Irish tradition.) At the same time, Faith Healer is notably grittier, funnier, and more connected to contemporary drama.

The play actually premiered in 1979 and has had a somewhat checkered reception in productions since then, but at Lantern it feels raw and spine-tinglingly new-minted. Director Peter DeLaurier masterfully orchestrates a production powerful in its disarming simplicity. The cast of three actors—Geneviève Perrier, Ian Merrill Peakes, and Anthony Lawton—are all Lantern veterans, who are doing some of the strongest work of their careers here. Fine design work by Nick Embree (scenery), Marla Jurglanis (costumes) and especially Lily Fossner (lighting) anchor the action. This is theater at the top level.

One more thing I can also say—Faith Healer at Lantern has served as an almost miraculous cure for me of my lifetime resistance to monologues. Let’s have more, please!