

The Motive and the Cue
Johnny Flynn: ‘I fall asleep to Richard Burton reading me ”Under Milk Wood”’. Jack Thorne’s new drama is the sort of play that gets described by the timelessly wanky epithet ‘a love letter to theatre’. Don’t let that put you off: you can rarely go wrong with a production directed by Sam frickin’ Mendes, and if it’s essentially MOR as hell, ‘The Motive and the Cue’ finds its feet via three excellent lead performances. It is 1964, and Richard Burton (Johnny Flynn) is probably the second-most famous actor in the world – the most famous being his wife, Elizabeth Taylor (Tuppence Middleton). Unlike her, the blunt, boozy Welshman is a creature of the stage. After achieving global celebrity through a prolific but ‘mixed’ body of film work, he’s determined to show the world what he’s really made of. He’s going to do ‘Hamlet’ on Broadway. Or that’s the plan. What Burton’s doing is arguing with the legendary theatre knight Sir John Gielgud (Mark Gatiss), who is notionally directing him in a high-concept production of Shakespeare’s greatest play. Flynn has done a remarkable job of nailing Burton’s rough-hewn but mellifluous South Wales accent Like Burton, Thorne and Mendes started out in theatre and have now largely moved into screen work. And at first ‘The Motive and the Cue’ feels like a loving tribute to the rehearsal process from a writer and director who are now largely looking back at it nostalgically. Even the liberal doses of ‘Hamlet’ peppered throughout feel rooted in a certai