Ralph Fiennes in Grace Pervades

FOLLOWING its premiere at the Theatre Royal Bath last year, David Hare’s Grace Pervades arrives in the West End with Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison reprising their roles as Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, stars of the Victorian stage.

Hare focuses on the later years of their careers. When Irving, already a leading actor, becomes manager of the Lyceum, he invites Terry to join his first season. While he is taciturn and serious (his intensity brilliantly conveyed by Fiennes), she is a ray of sunshine.

Her warmth lightens him and, in a hilarious scene, she improves his technique by urging him to look his fellow actors in the eye. Hare suggests a sexual relationship between them, though any passion gradually wanes, stifled by Irving’s obsession with securing the Lyceum’s financial and artistic success. Terry, meanwhile, has a life beyond the theatre.

Their enduring friendship is indisputable. For years they played opposite each other in numerous classics, even touring America together.

Hare also explores the lives of Ellen’s two illegitimate children (with the married designer Edward William Godwin, who left her for a student). Edith Craig (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) and Edward Gordon Craig (Jordan Metcalfe) made their own contributions to the dramatic arts.

Confident and pretentious, Edward, a self-proclaimed genius, went on to work with Russian theatrical supremo Stanislavski (Guy Paul). Edith staged feminist plays and later created a theatre and museum dedicated to her mother at Smallhythe, Kent.

Grace Pervades is immaculately staged by Jeremy Herrin on Bob Crowley’s versatile set, brilliantly enhanced by Akhila Krishnan’s video design. It’s sublimely acted and unexpectedly moving.

Warmly recommended.

Until July 11
gracepervadestheplay.com