"The Motive and the Cue" at National Theatre

 

National Theatre production photo by Mark Douet

This one just sounded right in our wheelhouse: a play about a production of a Shakespeare play (Hamlet) in 1964, featuring Sir John Gielgud as the director and Richard Burton as the lead actor. That sounds really fun. And it's based on real events. Since we were going to be in London with friends, we booked tickets with great anticipation.

The Play

While working together on the movie Becket, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole decided they would both like to try portraying Hamlet on stage, under the direction of the two best-known Hamlets of the previous generation: Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. By the flip of a coin, it turned out O'Toole would work with Olivier at the Old Vic in 1963, and Burton would work under Gielgud on Broadway in 1964. Jack Thorne's play, The Motive and the Cue, is set during the fraught rehearsals for the Burton/Gielgud version, which was itself staged to mimic the play being done in the rehearsal hall. Very meta.

But also a great set-up for a dramatic production, as the talented-but-dissolute Burton shows up ready to play the role, except for actually figuring out how he's going to portray Hamlet. And Gielgud is determined not to try to force his own interpretation of the role onto Burton, so they end up at something of an impasse. Meanwhile Burton is his larger-than-life self, along with his equally famous wife, Elizabeth Taylor. Things fly out of control until Taylor actually ends up mediating between the two men, and eventually Gielgud manages to get Burton to come to a realization of how he wants to play the role, and it turns into a memorable and amazing performance.

The play is remarkably well written, with terrific banter and a real feel for the early 1960s. Hearing famous sections of Hamlet read in the voices of such classic actors is a real treat, of course, as they work through both the play itself and the conflicts within the cast. It's deftly done, and a treat to hear. All the more remarkable is the fact that one of the actors in the production of Hamlet actually recorded a lot of the rehearsals with a hidden tape recorder, so we know a lot of this really happened.

The Performance

It's always tricky when actors have to portray other, famous actors on stage. There is a fine line between acting, interpreting, and imitating. The actors in this show manage to stay on the interpretation side of the line, evoking the essence of the subjects without trying to portray them exactly. It helps that Mark Gatiss as Gielgud bears a fair resemblance already, but he manages to convey the quiet, stoic aspect of Gielgud as he struggles to direct Burton effectively. Similarly, Johnny Flynn as Burton and Tuppence Middleton as Taylor convey the glamor and swagger of the famous couple without sliding into parody or exaggeration (though it might be hard to exaggerate Burton's swagger!).

Set designer Es Devlin keeps things quite simple, as the two main sets are a fairly spartan rehearsal room and the sitting room of Burton and Taylor's hotel suite. We get just enough to know where we are and what it's like, without the scene taking over. The focus remains on the characters quite nicely.

The show is long, at over two-and-a-half hours, but it doesn't feel long at all. It's quite engaging, and even though the 1964 rehearsals are clearly bogging down, Thorne's play never does, and director Sam Mendes keeps it all running smoothly.

The Bottom Line

It's all quite outstanding. If you're in London before the show closes on July 15, I heartily recommend seeing it if you can. This was my first play in person at the National Theatre, and the facility is quite impressive, both in the house and in the extensive lobby. But really, the play's the thing, and this one is very, very good.

It's a wonderful, thoughtful play about producing Hamlet, of course, and also an interesting insight into the very famous people who made this particular version happen (and apparently it was a huge hit, once they figured it all out). I understand there is a filmed version of the 1964 Broadway production that I need to see now. But this play and production very much holds its own.

Highly recommended. And even if you don't get to see it in person, I suspect it will be coming to NT Live and NT at Home before long. Well worth seeing it in any form.