Theatre Review: The Motive and the Cue

It is a curious fact that of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet has been theatrically performed the most. It is considered the pinnacle of an actor’s career to play the Danish Prince. The greats (and the lessor mortals) have attempted the role: Irving, Gielgud, Olivier, Schofield, Burton, Rylance, Branagh and Tennant. The list goes on, and each and every reader will have their favourite as to theatre or indeed film. But of the featured actors named above, two, Sir John Gielgud and Richard Burton collaborated as director and lead in 1964 for one of the finest ever productions of the bard’s favourite. This play, The Motive and the Cue tells that story.

The synopsis is that a coin toss between Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole decides who would be directed by Sir Laurence Olivier and who by Sir John Gielgud, in either London or New York productions of Hamlet. It is questioned as to who won and who lost, but Burton and Gielgud were thrust together. It was dare I suggest a somewhat fractious and volatile pairing. Much has been written of the battle (in every sense) between the two greats, and this production, brings together through the travails of the rehearsal room that story.

Some sixty years later, it remains as relevant and mesmerising as it did then. A gossiping cast not getting on. Famous celebrities at each other’s throats. Sex, alcohol and throw into the mix the legendary Elizabeth Taylor. What’s not to love.

Yet this is very much more. A story or ambition, expectation, self-doubt, and anxiety. Almost in the image of the play they are seeking to portray.

The National Theatre’s production of The Motive and the Cue brings together that complicated, volatile, poignant, remarkable relationship of these two men. Two men dealing with their own anxieties, self-doubt and staggering yet flawed abilities. It is a remarkable performance from its leading characters. Why wouldn’t it be. It is written by Jack Thorne and directed by Sam Mendes.

We are talking artistic heavyweights, and this is reflected in their cast. The wonderful Mark Gatiss (from the League of Gentlemen, Inside No.9 and Sherlock) as Sir John Gielgud is simply divine. He is mesmerising. You cannot take your eyes off him. He plays his character with warmth (even with the harshest of intellectual put-downs) and with a vulnerability of a star who believed (wrongly) that he is at the end of his illustrious career.

An actual joy. His nemesis, is Johnny Flynn, playing Richard Burton. Full of fire, passion, alcohol, and excruciating pain. Another flawed genius (for our collection). Tuppence Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor brings glamour, humour, and a sassiness to it all. A beguiling performance.

This is a wonderful production. A story very much of now, proving that imposter syndrome is not merely a vehicle of this age, but has in fact been with us as far back as Shakespeare.

The Motive and the Cue is on at the Noel Coward Theatre in London.

By Jason M Hadden MBE