Ralph Fiennes spent 2025 at the theater. With the Theatre Royal Bath, the protean actor starred in the world premiere of David Hare’s Grace Pervades, directed a production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and then performed with Francesca Annis in the new play Small Hotel. Fiennes doesn’t seem to be getting bored with the boards—he’s now performing in the West End debut of Grace Pervades, in which he portrays the Victorian stage actor Henry Irving. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the play explores Irving’s professional life and his complex romantic relationship with his scandalous mentee, the actress Ellen Terry (Miranda Raison). By the time Terry began working with Irving, she’d had two out-of-wedlock children with the architect Edward William Godwin—Edith Craig and Edward Gordon Craig, who shaped British theater history in their own ways. Spanning time, place, and themes, Grace Pervades is an ode to theater itself. —Jeanne Malle