Further casting has been revealed for The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre.
Directed by Sam Mendes, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne’s new play is to premiere at the National Theatre ‘s Lyttelton Theatre from 20 April 2023.
Olivier Award-winning actress Janie Dee is joining the cast as Scottish-American actress Eileen Hurlie. Hurlie played Gertrude in Gielgud’s Hamlet.
As announced last November, she joins a cast that includes Johnny Flynn (Emma, Hangmen) as Richard Burton, Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey) as Elizabeth Taylor and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) as John Gielgud.
Dee was last at the National Theatre in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies; and is set to star in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Gielgud Theatre in London from 16 September 2023.
Other cast in The Motive and the Cue include Aaron Anthony, Tom Babbage, Allan Corduner, Elena Delia, Ryan Ellsworth, Phoebe Horn, Aysha Kala, Luke Norris, Huw Parmenter, David Ricardo-Pearce, David Tarkenter, Kate Tydman, Laurence Ubong Williams and Michael Walters.
The production was originally announced in July last year and explores British acting legends Richard Burton and John Gielgud and how they staged a production of Hamlet on Broadway in 1964. At the time, Burton and Taylor had just married after meeting on the set of Cleopatra, and were the most famous couple in the world.
Alongside Sam Mendes in the creative team will be production design by Es Devlin, costume design by Katrina Lindsay, lighting design by Jon Clark, composer Benjamin Kwasi Burrell, sound designer Paul Arditti, and video designer Luke Halls. The Associate director will be Zoe Ford Burnett.
The play is based on the books “John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet” by Richard Sterne, and “Letters From an Actor” by William Redfield.
The play is a joint production between the National Theatre and Sam Mendes and Caro Newling’s Neal Street Productions. Another of their co-productions, The Lehman Trilogy, is now playing at the West End’s Gillian Lynne Theatre, with Michael Balogun, Hadley Fraser and Nigel Lindsay starring in the play.
Mark Gatiss is currently directing the West End transfer of his Chichester hit comedy The Unfriend starring fellow League of Gentlemen Reece Shearsmith, which is playing at the Criterion Theatre until 16 April 2023.
Gatiss is also directing new comedy The Way Old Friends Do, coming to the Park Theatre on 15 March 2023.
The Motive and the Cue will run from 20 April 2023 until 15 July 2023 at the Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre.
Book tickets to The Motive and The Cue at the Noel Coward Theatre in London
