NT Encore: The Motive and The Cue

A big-screen encore screening of Sam Mendes' filmed play about the 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet, starring Mark Gatiss as John Gielgud.

This NT Encore screening presents Jack Thorne's play The Motive and the Cue, directed by Sam Mendes and filmed live during its sold-out London run in 2023. Set in 1964, it follows Richard Burton, newly married to Elizabeth Taylor, as he rehearses the title role in an experimental Broadway Hamlet under John Gielgud's exacting direction, with tensions between actor and director threatening to unravel the production. Mark Gatiss plays Gielgud in an Olivier Award-winning performance, alongside Johnny Flynn as Burton and Tuppence Middleton as Taylor.