“Whether in movement or repose, grace pervades the hussy” declared Victorian novelist Charles Reade about Britain’s most celebrated actress Ellen Terry.
Ralph Fiennes as Henry Irving and Miranda Raison as Ellen Terry | Photo © Marc Brenner
This would also be an apt description of David Hare’s new play, premiering at Bath Theatre Royal, as it took is a beautifully graceful, stylish presentation of incongruously unconventional and sometimes messy lives.
The play explores the decades-long working relationship between the country’s leading actor Henry Irving and the younger Terry, acting opposite each other at London’s Lyceum Theatre in feted Shakespeare productions, as well as the lives of Terry’s children Edward and Edith Craig, who were born out of wedlock and whose lives took dramatically different paths.
Much conjecture has been made of whether the relationship of Irving and Terry (the Branagh and Thompson of their times) developed romantically or sexually – Hare’s play hints a couple of times that it did – but either way, they formed with the two children an unusual, dysfunctional family unit, complete with the strains and tensions which that affords.
In truth, this is undeniably a play for “luvvies”, as it is just as enchanted and obsessed about Victorian theatre and its aftermath as Irving himself was, and much of the talk is about acting, Shakespeare and the presentation of productions. It’s difficult to think of who else this theatrical family drama would really appeal to.
But there are clearly ample theatre fans in the audience to give this effortless and spellbinding production the applause it well deserves.
Director Jeremy Herrin wisely keeps the pace tight on this loquacious, adroit play, and balances the humour, tenderness and single-mindedness of the characters with ease (with the possible exception of Christabel “Chris” Marshall, whose performance jarringly seems to belong more to a sitcom in the first act, rather than blending with the otherwise naturalistic portrayals).
Bob Crowley’s deceptively simple set puts everything in the framework of the Lyceum proscenium arch – just as Irving would have done – but segues smoothly from dressing rooms to gardens and even a strikingly surreal Cubist set for Edward’s Moscow production of Hamlet.
Costume designer Fotini Dimou gives us similarly stunning clothes, especially Terry’s theatre designs in the opening scene, and Irving’s dressing gowns which trail for miles behind him. All-round this is a lavish, sumptuous production to live long in the memory.
As for the leads in this impressively large and versatile cast, they give us indelible, very human interpretations. As Edward, Jordan Metcalfe is appropriately irritating, needling and conceited, but simultaneously reminds us of the lonely lost figure he was.
Ruby Ashbourne Serkis as Edith brings out a warm level-headedness to her own unconventional life (she lived successfully as part of a lesbian throuple in the days before that was heard of, as well as daring to be a female who sets up her own theatre).
Miranda Raison effortlessly draws out the titular grace of Ellen Terry, giving no hint of the “scandalous” past she had, and her down-to-earth humanity is beautifully modulated with the frustration of never being fully in control of her own career; her solitary dream of playing As You Like It’s Rosalind after endless years in support of Irving was never realised.
And Ralph Fiennes as Henry Irving is outstanding and mesmeric, capturing fully Irving’s self-obsession, morose character and surprising generosity, showing why he was the first actor to be awarded a knighthood yet hinting at the loneliness behind the success.
His physicality is striking, down to giving Irving a continuous “stage-stance” even when not on stage, and his eventual embodiment of Irving acting a scene, for which we must wait until the end of the play, truly displays the reason his voice and style were so celebrated in Britain and America.
A stunning scene to end a memorable evening in the company of this most theatrical of families.
Grace Pervades is showing at Bath Theatre Royal until 19th July. Box office: 01225 448844.
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Reviewer: Steve Huggins
