The Motive and the Cue, Noel Coward Theatre

Following a terrific opening run at the National Theatre this spring, Jack Thorne's study of the famous Gielgud/Burton Hamlet transfers to the West End this winter, with leading cast members Mark Gatiss and Johnny Flynn going with it.

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The Motive and the Cue, National Theatre review ★★★★★

A play this meta and self-involved could have warranted a big yawn: The Motive and the Cue takes audiences back in time and behind the scenes of Sir John Gielgud and Richard Burton’s creatively troubled but wildly successful 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet, in which the former directed the latter following a coin-toss with fellow thesps Peter O'Toole and Laurence Olivier (who staged their side of the bargain at London’s Old Vic). But with the power-coupling of writer Jack Thorne and director Sam Mendes helming the project, and with Mark Gatiss and Johnny Flynn resurrecting the familiar mannerisms and fragile egos of its outwardly proud protagonists, this production is riveting from beginning to end.

Based upon Richard L Sterne and William Redfield’s recollections of performing in the Gielgud/Burton Hamlet, recorded in their Journal of Rehearsals and Letters From an Actor respectively, The Motive and the Cue flits between backstage discussions about Gielgud’s resolutely plain-clothed, bare-staged production and snapshots of rehearsals from it. We’re privy to the decision that famously led to Hamlet’s father being portrayed as a giant silhouette voiced by Gielgud himself, and in one tender scene, see Gielgud coaching Burton to channel his own meaning into the play’s best-known speech, ‘To be, or not to be’.

The Motive and the Cue cast at the National Theatre. Photo: Mark Douet

The production flows chronologically through the 25-day rehearsal period, each its own scene prefaced by a line from the play. Designer ES Devlin’s slick, elegant set shifts the action between three rooms: a high-ceilinged rehearsal space where the company congregate, a parlour room in Burton and his then wife Elizabeth Taylor’s home, and the office-cum-living quarters of Gielgud. Each is dressed gorgeously in its own block-colour palette, and in Burton and Taylor’s home, eagle-eyed audience members will notice the perkiness of the flowers seems to mirror the atmosphere on stage.

Gielgud’s adoration for Burton is evident from the start: he’s the only actor in the production the director is invested in directing, but also the only cast member not craving his direction. The bromance between the two sours, leading to a horribly uncomfortable scene in which Burton turns up to rehearsals drunk, and verbally castrates the lauded Gielgud – ridiculing his own celebrated portrayal of Shakespeare's Danish prince.

Tuppence Middleton (Elizabeth Taylor) and Johnny Flynn (Richard Burton) in The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre. Photo: Mark Douet

Burton and Taylor were two of the most in-demand actors of their time, but even though there would have been a lot of truth in Taylor’s consolatory comment to Burton that if his Hamlet was poorly received, ‘We can go to London and do [The Merchant of] Venice; we can go to Rome and do [The Taming of the] Shrew’, Thorne makes palpable the insecurities gnawing away at each major player of Gielgud’s production. While Burton is terrified of not being able to find his Hamlet, Gielgud admits his fears that he may have given his best performance playing the role, aged 25.

Johnny Flynn (Richard Burton) in The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre. Photo: Mark Douet

Flynn excels at capturing Burton’s harsh, grating voice and creepy, monotone laugh, but perhaps misses the glint in his darting eyes that made his Hamlet (readily available to watch on YouTube) so disturbing. Tuppence Middleton is suitably alluring as the sidelined Elizabeth Taylor, the biggest star among them, but belittled in her home. But this is Gatiss’s show, really, and he’s wonderful as the self-effacing director who spars with his unsurpassable Shakespearean knowledge. Gatiss captures his sheer passion for the Bard and also the inner wistfulness that plagued this period in his life, when he was unaware many of his successes still lay ahead.

While its many industry in-jokes make The Motive and the Cue less accessible than many of the productions we’ve seen at the National Theatre recently, as it closes on a vast, blank replica of Gielgud’s set, with Flynn-playing-Burton-playing-Hamlet clasping Yorick’s skull, we feel as though we’ve witnessed a significant moment in theatre history.