Review
Review
Review: Grace Pervades
Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison create and recreate theatrical magic at the Theatre Royal Haymarket
In his 32nd play, writer David Hare asks his audience: why do I bother? Grace Pervades is a play about artistic insecurity, about the true meaning and purpose of theatre, and at times Hare seems to suggest that it has little meaning at all beyond the individual. It’s down to great Victorian actors Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry – and Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison, in their shoes – to convince us that the art form to which they’ve dedicated their lives has a purpose beyond self-indulgence.
Hare’s script is an irresistible romp through almost a hundred years of history, throwing a wink to figures like Vita Sackville-West and Konstantin Stanislavski here and there, the scope of it deftly managed by director Jeremy Herrin and designer Bob Crowley. From 1878 to 1966, the characters seek to define theatre, to justify it, and to examine the worth in the pursuit of it, if there is any at all. Involved in this discussion also are Terry’s two children, born out of wedlock. They share her convention-bucking attitude but draw different conclusions from it: Edith (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) spends her time bringing straight-talking, feminist plays to a stage she builds in her mother’s back garden, whilst Edward (Jordan Metcalfe), clinging to the fallacy of his own genius, cannot be satisfied with his Moscow staging of Hamlet after three years of trying to realise his vision. Raised in the Lyceum, they are interested in the meta of theatre, in using it to prove something about the world or themselves. But for both, their mother and Irving represent a sort of theatrical perfection that cannot be touched nor recreated.
Hare’s play poses itself a problem in this sense: we are told that Irving and Terry are magic on stage beyond belief, but to show us Fiennes and Raison in imitation could shatter this – especially because the histrionic style of the era would hardly read to a modern audience like great acting. There are snatches of Shakespeare throughout – Irving would stage little else at the Lyceum, sniffing at ‘modern’ writers like Ibsen and Shaw – but our belief in Fiennes and Raison is built through watching them in rehearsal. Their finest scene comes in their first moment of collaboration, where Irving admits to being uncomfortable around women, and is astonished to find that Terry is able to alter his approach to performance in just a few sentences.
Fiennes and Raison are enrapturing as the Victorian actors, giving what will undoubtedly be two of the finest performances seen in the West End this year. Through them, Hare presents theatre as a compulsion, a noble pursuit and a life-ruiner all at once. Both Irving and Terry openly admit to the ways in which it has negatively impacted their lives – for Irving, his company at the Lyceum almost brings him to his knees financially, whilst Terry dreams of being a successful human being more than a successful actress. But purpose and passion are forces they cannot escape, even when a final performance quite literally takes everything Irving has to give.
Not one of the show’s central figures, Irving included, would have enjoyed the realism of Grace Pervades, nor appreciated its lack of solid conclusions. But for the audience at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Hare’s play is an excellent bridge between these two ages of drama – and a reminder that for as far back as theatre has existed, we have been in total disagreement about what makes it good.
Grace Pervades is currently playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket – find tickets here
