Four Quartets, starring Ralph Fiennes

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Summary

Filmed performance of the actor's self-directed one-man touring stage show based on TS Eliot's epic series of poems, recorded in English National Ballet's production studio by his sister, film-maker Sophie Fiennes. Mostly written during the Second World War when the closure of the playhouses during the Blitz interrupted Eliot's work in theatre, Four Quartets reflects upon surviving periods of national crisis

Review

Laura Rutkowksi

TS Eliot wrote Four Quartets during the Second World War when theatres were forced to close. Spool forwards several decades and we now have Ralph Fiennes performing a stage adaptation of the set of four poems at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre at the end of 2021, when theatres were tentatively reopening after lockdown.

Fiennes made this his passion project early during the pandemic, and here he delivers a poignant one-man show about a world under threat. While no one ever said Eliot’s work was easy to decipher, Fiennes, a magnetic presence who knows how to command a stage, translates the prose with ease and delivers it with renewed purpose.

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rolenamePerformerRalph FiennesDirectorSophie FiennesProducerShani HintonProducerPeregrine Kitchener-FellowsProducerMartin Rosenbaum

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