Grace Pervades at Theatre Royal Haymarket delivers two fine performances but little else

Grace Pervades | Theatre Royal Haymarket until 11th July 2026

Not so much a tour de force, more a force to bore

Two excellent performances cannot lift David Hare’s thirty-second play above its lack of theatrical purpose.

Grace Pervades is David Hare’s thirty-second play, and it’s remarkable that, at 78, he is still writing.

This one, which had its world premiere at Theatre Royal Bath last summer before transferring to the Haymarket, is at its heart a love letter to theatre itself and its capabilities. And who better to illustrate this than the two greatest stars of the Victorian stage: Ellen Terry and Henry Irving.

Irving, played here by Ralph Fiennes, was the first actor to be knighted, and he single-handedly established the respectability of actors. Previously, they had been considered thieves and vagabonds. He ran the Lyceum Theatre in London, now home to The Lion King, which gives some idea of the auditorium’s size, with enormous, spectacular ambition.

As for his style of acting, it must have been, at the time, a bit like Flashheart in Blackadder declaring, “I stand centre stage, put my hands on my hips, and bellow.” And on tour? Not so much a tour de force, more a force to tour.

He was also, not incidentally, Bram Stoker’s employer. Stoker used him as the prototype for Dracula, which, given Fiennes’s angular, gaunt portrayal here, seems entirely plausible.

The play also features Ellen Terry’s two children. Her daughter, Edith Craig, declares in the play, “I do dull plays for dull towns.” In reality she was a significant feminist and active suffragist, a side of her we don’t see here. Then there’s her son, Edward Gordon Craig, portrayed as an insufferable bore. He goes to Russia to rehearse Hamlet in a minimalist production they apparently rehearsed for three years, and which he hopes will never open, as that would spoil it all. As with his sister, the portrayal here seems at odds with reality. The Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage was named after him in recognition of his work as a scenic designer and his writings on theatre.

The title derives from a rather barbed contemporary review of Ellen Terry by critic Charles Read, who wrote that “grace pervades the hussy.” This was a backhanded compliment, alluding to Terry’s fall from social grace after having two illegitimate children with a married man.

As for her relationship with Irving, it’s uncertain whether they had a romantic relationship, but they were certainly superstars of the time, both at the Lyceum and on tour. One personal footnote: the play has at least prompted me to resolve that I really must visit the Ellen Terry Museum in Sissinghurst, so it has that much to its credit.

Hare is writing here in response to contemporary European theatre, specifically the Ivo van Hove stripped-back, video-camera style. This is not unlike the way Arthur Miller wrote The Price partly in reaction to the experimental theatre then flourishing.

The two central performances fully live up to that intent. Ralph Fiennes, a fine actor playing another actor, is excellent and very restrained. We don’t get to see any of that grand Victorian style in action, perhaps because nowadays it would be frankly risible. It’s a lovely, detailed performance. At one point, Ellen Terry even suggests to Irving, “Maybe you should look at the other actors when you’re on stage, not out at the audience.” But of course, that was the style of the day. You had to cheat your way out.

Thus, there are two excellent performances at the centre of what, for a play about theatre, is desperately untheatrical. And, I have to say, dull. It’s dry. It lacks a clear point of view. It’s beautifully staged and very well acted, but it delivers information in disjointed bits. Characters say things to each other that, in real life, they would never have done. Their dialogue serves purely to convey information.

Sadly, I learned more from reading the programme notes than from watching the play. It’s not like Amadeus, which takes the subject of music and deals with it theatrically. Grace Pervades doesn’t appear to have that kind of through line.

If you’re interested in the actors and you’d like to see Ralph Fiennes, then go. If you want some gripping drama, I would suggest you look elsewhere.

Two excellent performances from Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison sit at the centre of David Hare’s thirty-second play. But for a play about the theatre, Grace Pervades is desperately dry and untheatrical.

If you want theatre that achieves everything Grace Pervades reaches for but doesn’t quite grasp, John Martin’s five-star review of Mass at the Donmar Warehouse is essential reading

For more theatre criticism and arts coverage from across London, explore EyeOnLondon’s latest reviews.

Follow us on:

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest videos and updates!

We value your thoughts! Share your feedback and help us make EyeOnLondon even better!