REVIEW | The Motive And The Cue, Noël Coward Theatre
The cast of The Motive and the Cue in the West End. © Mark Douet Written by Franco Milazzo for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
Actors playing actors in a play about a play-within-a-play might sound a little contrived, but for the fact that The Motive And The Cue is grounded in reality, there’s certainly more than a little of that here.
Director Sam Mendes (Skyfall) and writer Jack Thorne (The Cursed Child) drop us into the Sixties and a New York rehearsal room where two icons are nominally working together but locking horns at every opportunity. Ageing theatrical legend Sir John Gielgud (Mark Gatiss) is directing hot-headed young starlet Richard Burton (Johnny Flynn) in a stripped-back version of Hamlet. It is soon apparent that the two have two very different visions of the play and the way the lead role should be played. The third wheel to this ding-dong battle of the Titans is Elizabeth Taylor (Tuppence Middleton), Burton’s American actress wife who intercedes between the volatile Welshman and the witty Englishman.
Between the rehearsal room showdowns and the after work parties chez Burton, we see how these three loop around each other. Burton is irked by Gielgud’s directing style, by turns relaxed and catty; Gielgud, a man who played Hamlet over 500 times, despairs at Burton’s wild ways and unprofessional attitude.
What could be plain docudrama is enlivened with insights into their private lives. Taylor has been a famous movie star since she was 12; she is for the first time in her adult life relishing her newly married status and being able to relax and be herself. Her husband is outwardly coarse and charismatic but is keen to prove himself as more than a film idol. Gielgud, meanwhile, contends with his homosexuality and his relative lack of star power compared to Burton, when he himself was in his mid-twenties.
A transfer from the National Theatre, the new setting adds only an extra layer of history over this play (Gielgud played Hamlet at the Noel Coward Theatre in 1934). Es Devlin’s simplistic sets don’t draw attention, leaving all the eyes focused on the talent and script that Mendes and Thorne have brought together in perfect alchemy. This is undoubtedly a piece of Proper Theatre and, for those who appreciate earnest acting, exciting badinage, and razor-sharp lines amid a sea of context and subtext, this is pure manna. In terms of exploring Hamlet the play and the people who have taken on the lead role, it doesn’t hold a candle to Dickie Beau’s superb Re-Member Me - but what does?
Having said that, someone’s thespian wet dream is someone else’s nerdy niche. The Motive And The Cue is certainly more than a bit wordy in places and those under 40 without a strong knowledge of Hamlet (the character or the text) might struggle without a bit more explanation and exposition; few people study Shakespeare as adults and the events depicted here happened almost exactly half a century ago.
It is Gatiss and Flynn who ultimately lift this work and make it more than a workplace drama; together and apart, they do wonders with Thorne’s script and find their way into the characters’ hearts and minds. Like Gielgud before him, Gatiss is now established as both an actor and director (his latest West End show The Unfriend opens with a new cast next month), Flynn is less well known. That won’t be the case for long.
The Motive And The Cue continues at Noel Coward Theatre until 23 March 2024.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
