Set in County Waterford in a dangerous time, the summer of 1666, when ‘the world is rational and wonders have ceased’, Blackwater Angel dramatizes the temptations of Valentine Greatrakes (1629-1683) and explores the relationships of this ‘stroker’, or miracle-worker, with his art, anxieties and fears, with his family and retinue, and with a troupe of strolling players.
Above all, however, Blackwater Angel, Jim Nolan’s entrancing new play weighs the effects of the siren-like foundling, Angel Landy, as the healer aspires to bestow peace on others and to achieve it in himself.
Twenty years after Faith Healer, Brian Friel’s masterpiece, a younger playwright probes the question of the price demanded by an otherworldly gift and the sacrifices one might make to accomplish one’s destiny. Blackwater Angel etches even more deeply Jim Nolan’s ‘profound compassion for human frailties’.
— Jocelyn Clarke, The Sunday Tribune
