Tickets for The Motive and the Cue are available now!

What happened in the rehearsal rooms of one of the most well-known productions of all time? Sam Mendes directs a sensational and shocking new play on what happened behind the scenes of the making of Richard Burton and John Gielgud’s Hamlet. This fierce and hilarious new play by Jack Thorne offers the audience the chance to be a fly on the wall into the politics of a rehearsal room while exploring the relationship between art and celebrity. 

Following a critically acclaimed, sell-out run at the National Theatre, The Motive and the Cue transfers to the West End for a strictly limited 15-week run, playing at the Noël Coward Theatre from 9 December. Book your tickets now!

About The Motive and the Cue 

What drives us to see the same plays, year after year? 

In The Motive and the Cue, mega-star Richard Burton is newly married to Elizabeth Taylor, and is preparing to play the titular role in John Gielgud’s experimental, new production of Hamlet. But as rehearsals progress, two ages of theatre collide and the collaboration between actor and director soon threatens to unravel.

The creatives of The Motive and the Cue 

Sam Mendes directs Johnny Flynn as Burton, Mark Gatiss as Gielgud and Tuppence Middleton as Taylor. The Motive and the Cue is inspired by Letters from an Actor by William Redfield and John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet by Richard L. Stern.

The Motive and the Cue tickets are available now!

Richard Burton’s Hamlet was a roaring commercial success, it ran for 17 weeks, breaking a record previously held by Gielgud himself, and was packed out every night. But, for many of those involved, it was not a happy experience. Explore all of it and more in this striking new play that is a theatrical tour de force! This fiercely funny new play is a love letter to the complex relationship between celebrity and art. Book your tickets now!