ROBERT GORE-LANGTON reviews The Motive and The Cue
Grandiose John Gielgud and drunken Tim Burton are the best enemies: ROBERT GORE-LANGTON reviews The Motive and The Cue
- In 1964, John Gielgud directed Richard Burton on stage as Hamlet
- Burton was a drunken Welsh boyo superstar with a new wife – Liz Taylor – in tow
The motive and the cue
Lyttelton Theatre, London Until July 15, 2 hours 40 minutes
Retrograde
Kiln Theatre, London Until May 27, 1 hour 30 minutes
In 1964, John Gielgud directed Richard Burton on stage as Hamlet. Gielgud was a plump, tall old actor of immense distinction. Burton was a drunken Welsh boyo superstar with a new wife – Liz Taylor – in tow. The result? Bickering in the rehearsal room, rousing moments of Shakespeare and 60s glamor galore. You also get to see Burton in his underpants – a first.
The actors in this are bang-on. Mark Gatiss has Gielgud’s dry, headmaster-like build down to the last detail. Johnny Flynn echoes the piercing bugle voice of the younger Burton. The two friends, or rather enemies, blow it out during rehearsals. Gielgud gives him notes and Burton brushes. He yells too much and he drinks all the time. His Hamlet is Tom Jones on the whip.
Tuppence Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor and Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton
But in a sense, this is more Gielgud’s play. We see his buttoned-up Alan Bennett-esque sexuality and his lovely light irony and most of all his thrillingly direct line into the mind of the Danish prince
But in a sense, this is more Gielgud’s play. We see his buttoned-up Alan Bennett-esque sexuality and his delightfully light irony and most of all his thrillingly direct line into the mind of the Danish prince. If only he could get Richard to listen! The rehearsal scenes feel wonderfully authentic.
Tuppence Middleton is not my idea of Liz Taylor. Too tinny, and top actors like Janie Dee (who plays Eileen Herlie as Gertrude) and Allan Corduner (Hume Cronyn as Polonius) don’t have enough lines. A huge cast directed by Sam Mendes has expensive underemployment. Perhaps Jack Thorne’s latest isn’t a great play, but it sure is a great night out.
Retrograde is a play with a burning fuse about the film world. A screenwriter, a studio lawyer and a young black actor all hope to sign a contract. The actor is 28-year-old Sidney Poitier – on the rise, angry, principled. The lawyer knows that he is part of the civil rights movement and thus has problems for the studio. The horrible price of his future career is the signing of a pledge denouncing his great hero Paul Robeson.
Playwright Ryan Calais Cameron admirably recreates the rapid-fire gun chatter that gave old movies their verbal color. “I got Sidney Poitier here to pretend he was in a nunnery for grandpas,” the lawyer despairs as he tries to get his actor to drink a whiskey mid-morning.
That lawyer is played with disgusting charisma by Daniel Lapaine, while Ian Bonar is the nerdy writer. As Poitier, Ivanno Jeremiah (left) is irritable and full of moral pain.
It’s a shame about the overly fair ending. But there’s dialogue of the first order and it’s a joy to hear.