In recent years, veteran playwright David Hare has made it abundantly clear that he is displeased by the direction contemporary theatre is heading. He believes it has been “infected” by European directing styles — too flashy, too commercial, and altogether too avant garde. So it should come as no surprise that his latest play, Grace Pervades, is both infatuated with the past and as thoroughly English as curling cucumber sandwiches.
A Dignified but Uncompelling Portrait
Ralph Fiennes offers a dignified but uncompelling portrait of Victorian actor-impresario Henry Irving, illicitly romancing his famous leading lady Ellen Terry during their lavish theatricals at the grand Lyceum Theatre. Meanwhile, her two children are battling to sweep away the clutter and inequalities of the 19th-century stage — on her dime. Hare does his best to represent them as brattish upstarts, but on this show’s turgid evidence, change could not come soon enough.
Vignettes of a Bygone Era
Hare’s play takes the form of vignettes, transporting us from Victorian theatre’s 1870s heyday right up to its bitter, protracted end in the 20th century. That means everyone in this play spends an awful lot of time telling you who they are and what they have done. “I’ve always lived in my sister’s shadow... I’ve never regarded myself as a serious actress,” explains Ellen Terry on her first appearance. Miranda Raison brings welcome fire and likeability to the part of this reluctant tragedian. Henry Irving sweeps away her objections and immediately makes her the star of his new season at the Lyceum, shining bright amidst a constellation of spear carriers, glimmering set pieces, and sparkling champagne suppers.
Nostalgia for a Less Nuanced Era
Hare’s nostalgia for this more extravagant era is palpable. Before the pernicious influences of TV and film, a vast and intricate network of touring productions entertained an entertainment-starved British public. The problem is, of course, that the shows they were flocking to were probably not very good. Irving proudly tells us that he would learn a new part every two days, striving to meet the demands of regional stock theatres that put on a different performance almost nightly. Nuance, interpretation, and innovation were entirely unaffordable luxuries.
The most interesting aspect of Grace Pervades is its suggestion that Terry was a forward-thinker who taught this plodding traditionalist how to really act, offering then-revolutionary tips — like the idea that he should actually look at the people he was performing a scene with. “Women embarrass me,” he admits glumly when she pulls him up on his lack of interest in Shakespeare’s female roles, both on and off stage. Still, on this play’s evidence, it is not really clear why Terry is so obsessed with such a curmudgeonly old sod. The real Irving must have had a prodigious amount of charisma, enough to persuade his actors to rehearse through the night and to win passionate hordes of fans who adored his grand, declamatory acting style, even as it faded from fashion.
A Thorough Hatchet Job on Terry’s Children
Terry’s pioneering children are subjected to a far more thorough hatchet job. In reality, daughter Ellen Craig was a charismatic suffragist and feminist theatre pioneer who advanced her cause with spectacular pageants of historical women. Here, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis plays a dour woman who admits to staging “dull plays for dull towns” and is trapped in a miserable lesbian love triangle in her mum’s Kent cottage. Hare stages an even more thorough posthumous character assassination of Edward Gordon Craig (Jordan Metcalfe), casting this radical champion of theatrical minimalism as a self-obsessed, childish bore whose main passion in life is telling everyone what a genius he is.
A Stiff and Mannerly Production
Hare clearly loves theatrical history. But he does not let his audience love it too, because he is too obsessed with overlaying it with his own agenda of old (good) versus new (diabolical). Jeremy Herrin’s production feels as stiff and mannered as the traditions that Edward Gordon Craig tried to sweep away. The new may be shocking, but at least it is rarely quite this boring.
‘Grace Pervades’ is at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket until 11 July.
