REVIEW Four Quartets

Theatre Royal Bath

ALTHOUGH the maximum number of seats allowed by Covid restrictions were full, there was an eerie silence when the curtain rose on a harshly lit, bare – but for two plain chairs and a small table – stage, there was a feeling of tension and anticipation in the auditorium usually reserved for a far bigger, more visually striking presentation.

Every member of the audience was there above all else because they wanted to be once again in a theatre watching a live performance.

The responsibility on Ralph Fiennes’ shoulders was enormous, and even before, in sotto voce tones, he had said the first of poet TS Eliot’s words, no actor ever had an audience so concentrated on their every sound and movement, or for that matter so wanting the whole enterprise to succeed.

In 80 uninterrupted minutes Fiennes has to explore, and hopefully make clear, Eliot’s deeply held views on religion, the meaning of time and space, as well as that most complex of all things, personal relationships. Only an actor with Fiennes’ breadth of talents would have set out on this choppy voyage in a not 100 per cent waterproof boat. And as a theatrical offering Four Quartets can hardly be described as a sure-fire winner.

As the boat finally found landfall, I felt rather as I used to after having braved a minor lake with my children in a not too secure boat, relieved to be safely ashore, a little damp round the edges, but also delighted to have made the journey and seen so many wonderful things.

Questions I may still have about Four Quartets, but I, and I suspect most of the Theatre Royal audience, were grateful to Ralph Fiennes for opening up to us such a wonderful Pandora’s Box of emotions.