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A scene from David Hare\u2019s \u2018Grace Pervades\u2019 \u00a9 Marc Brenner<\/p>\nUnlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n
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\u201cPeople arguing, that isn\u2019t theatre,\u201d blazes Ralph Fiennes\u2019 Henry Irving \u2014 who, with nice irony, just happens to be mid-argument in a play full of them. In fact, David Hare\u2019s new drama Grace Pervades is driven by some fundamental arguments \u2014 what is theatre for? What defines it, sustains it and why does it matter? It\u2019s fascinating territory and Hare\u2019s play is constantly absorbing, often funny and led by a mesmerising performance from Fiennes and a gorgeous, buoyant one from Miranda Raison. But it covers too much ground to do justice to its own potential.<\/p>\n
Central to the debate are two giants of the Victorian stage: the great actor-manager Irving and his leading lady Ellen Terry (Raison). While Irving burns his life out in tireless dedication to his art and to running the Lyceum Theatre, the luminous Terry delivers natural, definitive performances yet hankers for something deeper. He strives to make theatre \u201crespectable\u201d, to give audiences big \u201cproper\u201d plays, like Macbeth; she longs to play leading parts and questions why they don\u2019t tackle Ibsen, Shaw or Strindberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Terry\u2019s two children, meanwhile, look to the future. Her pioneering daughter, Edith Craig, champions women\u2019s causes, and produces 150 plays in 10 years. Her radical, difficult son Edward \u201cTeddy\u201d Gordon Craig has visions of redefining theatre completely but alienates colleagues. Between them all, they grapple with the changing nature of live theatre and ideas that will forge the art form we have today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A scene from David Hare\u2019s \u2018Grace Pervades\u2019 \u00a9 Marc Brenner<\/p>\n
Hare\u2019s play slices back and forth in time and place, with Bob Crowley\u2019s smart design using projections to shift location nimbly. We see Irving coax Terry to join him, touch in on their triumphs, watch as Irving, exhausted and frail, battles on despite illness. We drop in on Teddy being impossible in Moscow with Stanislavski. We visit Edith in Kent, living in a m\u00e9nage \u00e0 trois and hefting wood around to build a theatre with no class divisions.<\/p>\n
Hare is affectionately funny on the craft of making theatre \u2014 the grind, the sweat, the dressing room doubts and rehearsal room rows \u2014 but he also touchingly pays tribute to the legacy that he and the company have inherited. Jeremy Herrin\u2019s production embraces that: in a striking opening, the cast step out of a mist onto the empty stage as if summoned back to life. And, pleasingly, the work launches a season at Theatre Royal Bath with Fiennes himself as actor-manager (next up is As You Like It, which Irving wouldn\u2019t produce).\u00a0<\/p>\n
All this is great. But the difficulty is that any one of these characters could merit a play of their own. Jordan Metcalfe is very funny as the pompous Teddy; Ruby Ashbourne Serkis is warmly likeable as the practical Edith. But we don\u2019t get nearly close enough to either of them or grapple properly with their ideas. And their narratives pull us away from the main meat of the play, Irving and Terry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The chemistry between these two is gripping, however. Raison brings grace and warmth to Terry \u2014 a foil to Fiennes\u2019 pale, driven, impassioned Irving, who seems to be all elbows, knees and forehead and has the social skills of a plank. There\u2019s a huge laugh when Raison\u2019s Terry gently suggests that he try looking at other actors on stage. This richly packed play feels like rummaging around in a theatrical trunk \u2014 which is both its pleasure and its problem.<\/p>\n
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