Nobel Prize winner T. S. Eliot’s culminating achievement will open in London for a limited run by the end of the year. Featuring an all-awarded creative team and directed by Fiennes himself, its text is a quest for spiritual enlightment, which was mostly conceived during the closure of theatres in WWII. Presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Royal & Derngate, Northampton, the play received critical acclaimed on its reopening last May.
We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. What is art but the exploration of life and our inner nature? What is theatre but the roughest of those explorations? What is T.S. Eliot’s consummate achievement, starring one of the most distinguished English actors, but the most exhilirating adventure a viewer can have? After its critically acclaimed reopening at the Theatre Royal Bath last May, Four Quartets is coming to London for a limited run, carried out by a highly recognised creative team.
Directed by Fiennes himself, this compelling and moving piece written by the Nobel Prize winner is considered his culminating work of his career as a poet, offering four interwoven meditations on the nature of time, faith, and the quest for spiritual enlightenment. Mostly developed during World War II, when the closure of playhouses during the Blitz interrupted Eliot’s work in theatre, the Four Quartets (Burnt Norton, East Coker, The Dry Salvages and Little Gidding), contain some of the most exquisite and unforgettable reflections upon surviving periods of national crisis.
Presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Royal & Derngate, Northampton, it features a set design by Hildegard Bechtler (recipient of the Oliver Award for Award for After the Dance at the National Theatre), lightning by Tim Lutkin (Olivier Award for Chimerica) and sound by Christopher Shutt (Tony Award for War House). Fiennes’s stage credits, on the other hand, include such renowned productions like Hamlet (which earned him a Tony Award) as well as Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III and The Master Builder, most recently. Among his numerous film roles, the highlights comprise his BAFTA award winning performance in Schindler’s List; The English Patient; The Grand Budapest Hotel; The Constant Gardner; Skyfall; In Bruges; The Dig and The Harry Potter series.
Four Quartets will play at the Harold Pinter Theatre for 36 unique performances, from 18 November to 18 December 2021. Tickets can be purchased on the following link.
First Night Magazine 