• Grace Pervades

6/25/26 (Thurs), West End

There was little fanfare over David Hare’s latest show despite the presence of Ralph Fiennes (who I last saw years ago on a train in Harajuku just an hour before his Coriolanus in Akasaka). The reviews were more respectful than inspiring, and the clumsy title was no help. But the timing worked for me, so I went for it.

It proved to be an intelligent, low-key show about the Victorian Era theatrical giants Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, known for their long collaboration, at least onstage (their off-stage relationship is evidently uncertain). He is a glum workaholic, living only for the stage, while she is a more conciliatory type lured back from early retirement and content to play second fiddle to him, her only dream being someday to play Beatrice. She is unfailingly carefree and charming, a quality that appears to have emanated from the stage in her day. (The title is taken from a review of Terry that states, “Grace pervades the hussy.” Talk about a back-handed compliment.) The production smartly allows us to see her performing bits of some of her roles, including the Macbeth that was captured in her famous portrait. I wish they had done the same with Irving, whose dour personality makes it tough to imagine how he came across in performance. They kept talking about his breakthrough role years earlier, and that in particular would have helped us gauge his style. That’s a flaw in the writing.

There’s not much drama in the relationship between the two, but their exchanges are priceless. She reluctantly offers him occasional advice if he insists (“Darling, your acting could be improved if, from time to time, you looked at the other actors”), but she is not the type to make waves. She seems lovely and must be a saint to have put up with him. He is not a nasty person, just a depressing one. No accounting for taste, I suppose.

There is a subplot involving Terry’s two children, a egotistical son who wants to create shows without actors, and an artist daughter whose ambitions are unfulfilled. There is an amusing sequence of the boy directing Shakespeare in Russia, where the diplomatic producer tries to keep the nutcase happy. The daughter lives with two others, including the unlikely prospect of a more-or-less open lesbian maid. Those stories do not integrate particularly well with the main plot, fine only as a distraction.

The best part was Hare’s keen ear for dialogue, which remained throughout at a very high level. The caliber of discussions between the two main characters really brought them to life. Other than the lesbian (entertaining though that was), all the characters felt real, and their conversations natural.

The two leads were solid, especially Miranda Raison as the ever-positive Terry. I wasn’t familiar with the actress, but she gave off an effortless charm, right to her final scene in her dotage, that reflected the reviews and recollections of the real-life Terry. The cast was fine all around. The director offered some nice nuggets, like the swift unseen costume shifts in the series of Terry’s famous roles (I thought of the unexpected costume change in The Audience) and the Russian scene. While this could easily be transformed into a radio play, it was visually lovely from start to finish.

The show does not offer any real fireworks since even the disagreements between the actors were handled with restraint, helped by Terry’s easygoing personality. The show is mainly a love letter to the theater, attractive mainly to those who love the art. And that fortunately includes me.