The Motive and the Cue review: a ‘heartfelt plea’ for the ‘power of theatre’

Jack Thorne’s new play looks at Richard Burton and John Gielgud’s relationship during rehearsals for Hamlet in 1964 

Mark Gatiss as John Gielgud and Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton in The Motive and the Cue 
Mark Gatiss as John Gielgud and Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton in The Motive and the Cue 
(Image credit: Mark Douet/National Theatre)

“There’s been no shortage of stage portrayals of real life VIPs in the past couple of years,” said Clive Davis in The Times. Jack Thorne’s “thoughtful, often wickedly droll” new play, about the relationship between Richard Burton and John Gielgud during rehearsals for a 1964 production of Hamlet on Broadway, is a “distinguished addition” to the genre. “Immaculately directed by Sam Mendes”, it is a “poised study” of how two actors with very different temperaments scrapped and sparred in the run-up to opening night. Gielgud, a Shakespearean actor of the old school, who was directing the play, felt his own star was fading; by contrast, the young, arrogant hard-drinking Burton was at the peak of his career, even if it was being overshadowed in the press by his marriage to Elizabeth Taylor.

He is “to the manner born as the quietly pained old knight”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. And you can see why Flynn’s Burton would “resist the headmaster”, with his “repeat-after-me line-readings”; you can also see how this struggle unlocks “the filial complexes from his life that can feed the art”. It’s not a perfect evening – I’d love to have seen more of Middleton’s Taylor – but “it’s a palpable hit”.

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Lyttelton, National Theatre, London SE1 (020-3989 5455; nationaltheatre.org.uk). Until 15 July. Rating ****