The Motive and the Cue!

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Nominated for three WhatsOnStage Awards 2024, including Best Direction (sponsored by LOVEtheatre) and Best New Play

Following on from a recent acclaimed and sold out run at the National Theatre, the hugely celebrated production of THE MOTIVE AND THE CUE is playing at the Noel Coward Theatre for a limited 15-week run this winter!

Sam Mendes (The Lehman Trilogy) directs Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton, Mark Gatiss as John Gielgud and Tuppence Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor, in this fierce and funny new play by Jack Thorne, offering a glimpse into the politics of a rehearsal room and the relationship between art and celebrity.

Joining them in this ‘theatrical extravaganza’ (Evening Standard) is, Allan Corduner as Hume Cronyn, Sarah Woodward as Eileen Herlie, Rebecca Collingwood as Linda Marsh, Luke Norris as William Redfield, Laurence Ubong Williams as Hugh McHaffie, Elena Delia as Jessica Levy, Huw Parmenter as Clement Fowler, Shaun Yusuf McKee as Robert Milli, Adam Sina as Frederick Young, Ryan Ellsworth as George Voskovec, Daniel Krikler as Dillon Evans and Waiter, David Tarkenter as Alfred Drake, Kate Tydman as Christine Cooper, Mark Extance as Mick Burrows and Stephanie Siadatan as Susannah Mason.

What is The Motive and the Cue about?

1964: Richard Burton, newly married to Elizabeth Taylor, is to play the title role in an experimental new Broadway production of Hamlet under John Gielgud’s exacting direction. But as rehearsals progress, two ages of theatre collide and the collaboration between actor and director soon threatens to unravel.