Unearthing Burton and Gielgud
David Cottis reflects on the National Theatre’s recent production of a new play by Jack Thorne which explores Richard Burton’s 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet, The Motive and the Cue.
By an odd coincidence, both large auditoria at London’s National Theatre are currently occupied by new plays about real people and (fairly) recent history. In the arena-styled Olivier, there’s Dear England by James Graham, which tells of England footballer/manager Gareth Southgate’s redemptive journey from a missed penalty in 1996 to the 2022 World Cup, while the proscenium-arched Lyttelton hosts Jack Thorne’s The Motive and the Cue, about the 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet directed by Sir John Gielgud and starring Richard Burton.
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Impressive that I read about this first on this particular publication! Not seen anything about thus anywhere else.