"The Motive and the Cue is most effective is in showing...behind the scenes of a play."
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Sam Mendes and Jack Thorne have together created a brilliant piece of theatre, certainly one that’s fascinating to anyone with an interest in the industry, but equally entertaining for anyone who loves a good story. Watching The Motive and the Cue, we should all be grateful that coin landed the way it did, because it shows us the happenings of the rehearsal room can be just as dramatic as anything happening on stage.
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“The resulting shape of ‘The Motive and the Cue’ is both polished and full-blooded. It’s the grandeur and significance of Shakespeare laid bare. It’s history in the making: process and performance.”
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“Jack Thorne’s ‘The Motive and the Cue’...its wider preoccupations with old age, change, and the perils of the new, make it a rewarding and sometimes even challenging evening.”
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“In this theatre lover’s dream, we delve into what makes a play great...There is so much heart in this play and it’s also laugh out loud funny, with Gattiss’ one liners landing perfectly each time. Shakespeare fans will not be disappointed as we are treated to a flurry of Hamlet snippets and facts, with the father issues in Hamlet neatly mirrored by Burton’s own situation.”
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“Though it boasts a cast of 16, ‘The Motive and The Cue’ is a two-hander writ large, with multi-hyphenate folk singer and screen star Johnny Flynn taking on Burton’s charismatic, boozy bluster and Mark Gatiss launching himself into a condescending but sensitive Gielgud. Under the direction of Sam Mendes, both are sensational.”
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“...Jack Thorne’s ‘The Motive and the Cue,’ is a rapier-witted and stirring love-letter to theatre, and to Hamlet, and to two of the play’s most notable 20th-century exponents – John Gielgud and Richard Burton”
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“This Gielgud is – like the real man – often very funny. But it is the triumph of both play and performance that he is so much more than that. He becomes a symbol of human frailty and of resilience. In his belief in art, he becomes a beacon for life.”
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