Ralph Fiennes, one of our most celebrated actors and directors, brings a bold, personal vision to the Theatre Royal Bath with a eponymous season blending Shakespeare, new writing, music and the raw power of spoken word performance, discovers Emma Clegg.
Actor, film producer, and director Ralph Fiennes does not need any introduction (unless you have been living in a dark cave for 30 years), because he is a towering living legend. His seasoned biography sports a British Academy Film Award and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. His stand-out film roles span from the 1990s to the present day – among them his portrayal of Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List (1993), Count László de Almásy in The English Patient (1996), Michael Berg in The Reader (2008), concierge Monsieur Gustave in The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and just last year his commanding role as Cardinal Lawrence in Conclave (2024). And let’s not forget his Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films (2005–2011) and his Gareth Mallory (M) in the James Bond films (2012–2021).
Having trained at RADA, Ralph achieved prominence at the Royal Shakespeare Company and while his screen performances have given him his worldwide exposure and success, his heart remains firmly with Shakespeare. He has worked extensively in theatre, where his many credits include Richard III (2016), Antony and Cleopatra (2018), and in 2024 Macbeth, alongside Indira Varma as Lady Macbeth.
His connection with Theatre Royal Bath’s Director Danny Moar was established with the stage adaptation of Four Quartets, a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot, which Ralph performed and directed in 2021. It welcomed audiences back to theatre post-pandemic before touring, transferring to the West End and then being filmed for the BBC. So when Danny suggested a Ralph Fiennes season in 2025, there was not much soul-searching required: “Danny was very supportive of Four Quartets and that time felt a very creatively constructive moment”, says Ralph.
“This is a short season, just three plays, and it’s exciting, because I have never taken the role of artistic director figure. I’d wanted to direct in theatre for some time, especially with Shakespeare, whom I love above all else. But then I thought, ‘If I do a Shakespeare I must also have new plays and new writing’. I approached David Hare with this idea about a play about Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, and David was taken with that. Then I met up with Rebecca Lenkiewicz, a wonderful playwright and screenwriter, and she was up for it. So we’ve got two new plays, Grace Pervades and Small Hotel along with Shakespeare’s As You Like It.”
Grace Pervades, with Ralph playing Henry Irving opposite Miranda Raison as Ellen Terry, is an untold story in theatre, although all four of the main players – also including Ellen Terry’s son Edward Gordon Craig and her daughter, producer, writer and actor Edith Craig – are well known in theatrical circles. “At London’s Lyceum Theatre, engraved into the concrete across the breadth of the back facade, are these three names – Terry, Stoker and Irving. Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, is not in our play, but he was Irving’s right-hand man and assistant manager for many years. So Irving was a towering figure, but time moves on, and people forget.”
Ralph explains the narrative: “I was deeply moved by the lives portrayed – four people who kept creating theatre and evolving it. Irving developed a highly stylised, richly visual theatre that would seem quite old-fashioned or over-the-top by today’s standards – with lavish, late-Romantic painted backdrops and effects that were pictorial and illustrative.”
“Today, theatre tends toward suggestion and minimalism, and that’s largely thanks to Edward Gordon Craig. His radical ideas about design, using light, simple panels, abstraction, still shape our theatre today.
“Craig deeply admired Irving as a performer and leader, but ultimately challenged and reimagined the theatrical model Irving created. Still, Irving, with Ellen Terry at his side, elevated theatre production to a level that hadn’t been seen before. He didn’t just act; he transformed how plays were staged and how audiences experienced theatre. As an actor myself, I find that legacy incredibly moving.”
Ralph also gives insight around Ellen Terry: “Ellen was gifted with a kind of spontaneous genius. In rehearsals we often talk about actors like Judi Dench or Vanessa Redgrave, performers who possess that rare, ineffable quality that audiences are drawn to instinctively. Ellen was one of those – a shining presence on stage, beloved, almost magical.
[Irving] didn’t just act; he transformed how plays were staged and how audiences experienced theatre. As an actor myself I find that legacy incredibly moving”
“Edith, her daughter, a feminist and suffragette, created socially conscious, stripped-back theatre rooted in amateur drama, but remained little known. In contrast, Edward Gordon Craig produced very little, but his revolutionary ideas about theatre involving minimalist design and, abstract staging made him hugely influential in the history of theatre. That interplay of personalities and ideas is what gives the play its depth.”
Irving and Terry played opposite each other again and again in roles including Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and Romeo and Juliet. How does Ralph imagine that kind of intense professional relationship? “If you find someone with whom you share a deep rapport on stage, it must be a wonderful thing – a kind of creative, performative understanding. I haven’t really had that myself, though I’ve acted more than once with one or two people. But the idea of returning to roles with the same stage partner, of reinvestigating characters together over time, that must be incredibly rich. I imagine it’s similar to what happens between musicians who’ve played together for years, a shared intuition that deepens with time.”
This musical comparison is echoed in how Ralph has chosen legendary singer-songwriter Patti Smith and performance artist Kae Tempest to perform in his theatre season. “They’re both extraordinary poets. I love Kae’s poetry – they’re a brilliant performer of their own work. And Patti is not only a singer, but a writer, a poet and someone deeply in love with the spoken word. I just had a gut feeling they’d bring something raw and powerful to the season.”
Small Hotel, the other new play, written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and directed by Holly Race Roughan, brings more insights around humanity, and in this Ralph plays opposite his ex-partner Francesca Annis. “What Rebecca has written is a beautiful exploration of the fragility of love and intimacy in today’s world. We live in a time where spontaneous human connection has been diluted by our dependence on social media and digital communication. We’re constantly presenting ourselves – through Instagram, TikTok or television – rather than simply being with each other. The play raises important questions about how we navigate real intimacy in a world obsessed with image and speed. Ultimately, it asks: how do we make genuine, meaningful contact with one another in such a mediated, distracted age?”
As You Like It brings a similar level of modern relevance for Ralph: “I was drawn to the play because it explores gender and identity with such fluidity and insight. Rosalind, disguised as a man, woos the person she loves – and within that ambiguity lies something profound about the multiple selves we all contain. Shakespeare was clearly attuned to this; in his time, with male actors playing female roles, there were already layers of gender play onstage. That sense of shifting identity feels especially relevant today.
“Another reason I was interested in the play is the setting – the forest as a place of transformation. Nature becomes a crucible for change. People fall in love, rediscover themselves, seek forgiveness and are renewed. The play moves from cruelty and darkness to a celebratory ending, full of marriages, reconciliations and possibility.
“It’s unashamedly hopeful – a vision of what might be possible when love, spontaneity and humanity are allowed to flourish. I think that’s why it still resonates so deeply.”
Choose just one event or take five; whatever your choice it will make an indelible mark.
Grace Pervades runs at Theatre Royal Bath until 14 July; An Evening wth Patti Smith 6 July; As You Like It 15 August–15 September; Small Hotel 3-18 October.
theatreroyal.org.uk