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"The artistic life is a long, lovely suicide," Oscar Wilde said. The aphorism came to mind as I was watching the Gate Theatre production of the four eloquent monologues on the paradox of talent which make up Brian Friel's "Faith Healer" (imported from Dublin to the Booth, under the elegant direction of Jonathan Kent). The subject of the monologues is the Irish faith healer Frank Hardy (Ralph Fiennes)--the "Fantastic Francis Hardy," as the threadbare banner behind him proclaims. Frank's speeches are the first and last of the evening; through their evasions, omissions, and confessions, they chart the trajectory of his self-destruction. Frank's wife, Grace (Cherry Jones), ...