The Motive and the Cue
Written by Jack Thorne. Directed
by Sam Mendes. Sharmill Films National Theatre of Great Britain. Noél Coward Theatre. National
Theatre Live. Dendy Cinema. Canberra. www.ntlive.com
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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Mark Gatiss as Sir John Gielgud and Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton
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Jack Thorne’s The Motive and the
Cue offers a fascinating and illuminating insight into a behind the scenes
glimpse into the 1964 rehearsal period for Richard Burton’s Hamlet under the
direction of Sir John Gielgud. The NT Live screening of Sam Mendes’s National
Theatre production is obligatory viewing for any theatre maker, theatre worker
and theatre lover. The action of Thorne’s play takes place in the New York rehearsal
room with interaction between the director and the actors and chiefly with
Johnny Flynn playing Richard Burton playing Hamlet. It is a riveting account of
the rehearsal process and the titanic struggle between two contrasting legends
of stage and screen. We then see rehearsal excerpts of key moments in the play
such as the opening scene on the battlements, Hamlet’s scene with Rosencranz
and Guildenstern and the arras scene with Gertrude, Hamlet and Polonius. And
finally, Thorne takes us into the hotel room of Burton and Elizabeth Taylor to
reveal their relationship and Burton’s private revelations about the rehearsal
process. The scenes are separated by the projected announcement of the
rehearsal day with a quote from Hamlet forecasting the theme of each scene, for
example Day 4 Must hold my tongue.
At its core,
The Motive and the
Cue is about vulnerability, the spasms of self doubt that can torment the
artist, giving rise to argument, confrontation and disruption. Mendes’s astute
and compassionate direction of his outstanding cast holds the mirror up to
nature, showing talent its own image, frailty its own hindrance and the passage
of time and age its perilous miscommunication. As Gielgud (Mark Gatiss) points
out that Hamlet’s emotional journey is merely served by the other characters. In
this play within “Uncle Will’s” play it is Flynn’s Burton whom all other actors
serve. It is a service not to be
tolerated by Eileen Herlie (Gertrude) or Hume Cronyn (Polonius) when Burton
(Flynn) appears drunk and acts abominably at rehearsal. One actor in the role
of Burton plays many parts, the charismatic screen legend, the cantankerous
Welshman, the passionate lover, the egotist and the talented actor facing the
fear of failure. It is no surprise that the 1964 company should find themselves
treading on eggshells in rehearsal and none more so than the legendary Sir
John. Mendes and Thorne have crafted a work that reveals the highs and the lows
of an actor’s world. The production exposes both the joy and the agony of a
life in the theatre. It is the antithetical conflict between the motive, which
Gielgud describes as the intellect, and the cue, which is the passion. It is only
when Gielgud and Burton reach a compromise between the old and the new and a
common understanding of the need to own one’s Hamlet that director and actor
can finally reconcile and achieve the balance between the motive and the cue.
In many respects
The Motive and
the Cue is a two hander. This in no way denigrates the excellent work of the
National Theatre’s company in effectively portraying the actor of the time and
the character of the play. There are fine performances from Janie Dee as Eileen
Herlie/Gerturde, Allan Corduner as Hume Cronyn/Polonius and Luke Norris as
William Redfield/Guildenstern. Tuppence Middleton
gives
a
captivating performance as a most beautiful and beguiling as well as insightful
and intelligent Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Ubong Williams lends pathos to
the scene between Gielgud and a rent boy. Thorne’s play is primarily about the
relationship between a director and an actor and particularly the difficult
relationship between Sir John Gielgud and Richard Burton during rehearsals
for
the New York production of
Hamlet.
Mendes has chosen two superb actors to bring these historical legends of stage
and screen to life.
As Gielgud Gatiss does not impersonate the great British
Knight. He inhabits the character entirely. His Gielgud is extraordinary
capturing every inflection of the famous voice, every gesture, every emotion
and in a moving scene between Gielgud and his assistant (Aysha Kala) the
insecurity that plagues every true artist. Flynn’s Burton is a force of nature
to behold, mercurial, volcanic, unpredictably wild and passionate and yet beset
by anxiety as he ventures towards the unknown. Gatiss and Flynn give
mesmerising performances, so very different and yet possessed by the same fire
that blazes with the love of theatre and their art. The entire production under
Mendes’s direction is a master class in direction, acting and life.
NT Live and the National Theatre
have given audiences world wide a gift to cherish. Shot largely in close up interspersed with wide shots it draws one entirely into the play’s world, as
though we were the nobility of Shakespeare’s time with our seats upon the
stage. I watch spellbound by the genius of "Uncle Will" (as Gielgud calls him), Gielgud’s insights into
the play and Burton’s charismatic complexity. For me
The Motive and the Cue is a fond trip down memory lane. For the new
generation it is a lesson to enrich the young artist’s passion and dream as
they pursue their motive and their cue.
All
they need to know is in the lyrics of Noel Coward’s
Wait A Bit Joe, played at the start –
There’s a right way and a wrong way. There’s a weak way and a strong
way. There’s an old way and a new way. There’s a false way and a true way. But
whichever direction you take, wait a bit Joe.Photos by Mark Douet
