Grace Pervades Tickets

The Theatre Royal Haymarket has transformed into the Lyceum, but you won’t see any singing Serengeti animals here. Long before The Lion King ruled the West End venue, it belonged to another king entirely: the titan of Victorian theatre, actor-manager Henry Irving (Ralph Fiennes). 

Grace Pervades charts Irving’s management of the Lyceum from 1878 to 1902 and documents - through 25 scenes and 24 years - two artists, Irving and his leading lady, Ellen Terry (Miranda Raison), who are bound together by work, admiration and broken promises.

Terry acts with joy, charm and warmth, a choice that was ridiculed by some critics at the time. She was seen as ‘too sexual to be an actress’, and it’s where the title of David Hare’s 32nd play found its name, an abbreviation of a review “Grace pervades the hussy.” She is the polar opposite of Irving, who plays everything with sorrow and tragedy “an evening with me can be very grim” he admits. 

It is a professional, and personal, relationship that shouldn’t work but did.. Terry’s easy confidence allows her to challenge Irving in ways few others can. She is one of the only people able to puncture his self-seriousness, gently offering notes on his performance style “your acting could be improved if, from time to time, you looked at the other actors.” She gets some of the biggest laughs of the evening (and there are a lot of them).