“Small Hotel” at Theatre Royal Bath
Simon Thomas in South West England
★★★★☆
10 October 2025
Who would have had Ralph Fiennes down as a hoofer? In Small Hotel, now premiering at Bath’s Theatre Royal, he keeps threatening to break out into a full-blown tap routine but never quite does. Just as well, as the hints we get are that tripping the light fantastic wouldn’t quite suit the great tragedian. His performance in Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s witty and elliptical new play, written for him at his request, is a mix of good and great.
Francesca Annis and Ralph Fiennes.
Photo credit: Marc Brenner.
As Larry, a TV chat-show host whose career is on the slide, he lacks the lightness of character and charm to quite convince but as twin brother Richard, who lives away from society in a barn in the woods, he shows great subtlety and comic flair. What’s extraordinary is that he plays both characters simultaneously, by virtue of technology, in a perfectly synchronized display of live action and video recording. It’s so well done, and Fiennes’ character differentiation is so skilful, that you almost believe there are two different actors working in beautiful harmony. We know he is a great screen actor and a great stage actor, and you get both for your money in this show.
As Larry struggles with a failing career, his union with a now mega-successful stage and screen star, Marianne, is reignited, some two decades after he betrayed her for a one-night stand. She was 19 and he 39 at the time, he an established TV personality, she an aspiring actress. In an age where inappropriate relationships are strictly frowned upon, it’s interesting that Lenkiewicz chooses to portray such an age and status difference so sympathetically.
Her script combines styles in highly theatrical fashion, and the bold and bravura direction by Headlong’s artistic director Holly Race Roughan does full justice to it. The play begins in a dreamlike, not to say nightmarish, manner and gradually settles down into something much more domestic. This seems to be the point of a play that is not easy to decipher.
She juxtaposes the grandiose with the mundane: for Marianne, the glamour of a hugely successful Oscar, BAFTA, and Tony Award-winning acting career is swept away by the quotidian reality of a broken relationship and the simple need to be loved. Rosalind Eleazar (Slow Horses) gives an extraordinarily good performance in the part, combining vulnerability with a new-found strength and self-reliance. Lenkiewicz plays with content and form in a way reminiscent of Sarah Kane’s Blasted, albeit on a far less apocalyptic level, and it also brings to mind Samuel Beckett’s Play, in which a mundane love triangle is presented in a highly original format. The small hotel of this play seems to serve as a metaphor for the deficiency of everyday life; no matter how grand our achievements, we’re ultimately forced to check out. The title is drawn from Rodgers and Hart’s haunting song “There’s a Small Hotel”, which returns frequently during the evening, and we’re told the twins were named by their vulgar, alcoholic, and mentally fragile mother (Francesca Annis) in tribute to the songwriting duo.
Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Tucker.
Photo credit: Marc Brenner.
The play abounds in ideas and themes, some of which are under-developed, and at times it veers dangerously towards cliché. In particular, the relationship between the twins and their mother, who consistently mixes up their names, is well-trodden subject-matter. The problems of both the once-successful, confident, and promiscuous Larry and the virgin hermit Richard stem from their mother’s misguided and slightly cranky care, and although they’ve gone in very different directions neither has escaped her crushing influence. She’s played with gusto by a stunningly youthful Annis (would it be indelicate to say that she has now entered her ninth decade?).
Completing the cast is Rachel Tucker, who plays a number of characters in a sort of stylized MC role. Her vast experience of musical theatre means when her itchy tap toe finally gets unleashed, her movement is rather more convincing than Fiennes’ earlier efforts (movement director Sarah Fahie).
The team of designers – set (Bob Crowley), costume (Loren Elstein), lighting (Sally Ferguson), sound (Max Pappenheim), and video (Luke Halls) – all contribute to some arresting stage pictures. There are images that will stay in the memory, not least the final scene where Fiennes’ Richard escapes the confines of the recording studio.
As the last of three productions presented under Ralph Fiennes’ stewardship in Bath, Small Hotel offers some of the best work of the season. It’s uneven, particularly in the writing, and Lenkiewicz confesses that the commission came at a time when she was “burnt by screenwriting” (she also made her debut as film director with Hot Milk this year). It nevertheless presents fine creative opportunities for all involved, and Roughan and her company grab them with both hands.
