The Motive and the Cue (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Jack Thorne

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 112

Beschreibung

Best Play - Evening Standard Awards - 2023 1964: Richard Burton, the firebrand Welsh actor, newly married to movie star Elizabeth Taylor, is to play the title role in an experimental new production of Hamlet under the exacting direction of John Gielgud. But as rehearsals progress, the collaboration between actor and director soon threatens to unravel. One of them is the most famous movie star in the world; the other, a patrician from an earlier age of theatre. The stage is set for two titans to collide. Jack Thorne's The Motive and the Cue is a fierce, funny play which offers a glimpse into the politics of a rehearsal room and the relationship between art and celebrity. This edition was published alongside the West End transfer in 2023, following its world premiere at the National Theatre, London, earlier that year. Originally commissioned and co-produced by Neal Street Productions, it was directed by Sam Mendes, and starred Johnny Flynn as Burton, Mark Gatiss as Gielgud and Tuppence Middleton as Taylor. It was named Best Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2023. 'Marvellous… a quite wonderful new play… full of compassion, funny, witty and utterly compelling… This play is Thorne and Mendes's own love letter to the stage, full of both intellect and passion, clever and profoundly moving' - WhatsOnStage 'Enjoyable and hugely adroit' - Evening Standard 'Witty, deft, and touching… a palpable hit' - Telegraph 'Magical… deeply affecting… not just a heartfelt plea for the power of theatre, but a moving, often very funny, story about two generations teasing and provoking one another' - Independent 'Fascinating… a dual of egos in which not just the play, but the two men's sense of their selves is at stake' - The Stage

Leseprobe

Jack Thorne

THE MOTIVE AND THE CUE

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Characters

The Motive and the Cue

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

The Motive and the Cue was co-produced by the National Theatre and Neal Street Productions, and first performed in the Lyttelton auditorium of the National Theatre, London, on 2 May 2023 (previews from 20 April). The cast was as follows (in alphabetical order):

DILLON EVANS

Aaron Anthony

MICK BURROWS

Tom Babbage

HUME CRONYN

Allan Corduner

EILEEN HERLIE

Janie Dee

SUSANNAH MASON

Elena Delia

GEORGE VOSKOVEC

Ryan Ellsworth

RICHARD BURTON

Johnny Flynn

SIR JOHN GIELGUD

Mark Gatiss

LINDA MARSH

Phoebe Horn

JESSICA LEVY

Aysha Kala

ELIZABETH TAYLOR

Tuppence Middleton

WILLIAM REDFIELD

Luke Norris

FREDERICK YOUNG

Huw Parmenter

CLEMENT FOWLER

David Ricardo-Pearce

ALFRED DRAKE

David Tarkenter

CHRISTINE COOPER

Kate Tydman

ROBERT MILLI

Michael Walters

HUGH MCHAFFIE

Laurence Ubong Williams

All other parts to be played by members of the company.

Director

Sam Mendes

Set Designer

Es Devlin

Costume Designer

Katrina Lindsay

Lighting Designer

Jon Clark

Composer

Benjamin Kwasi Burrell

Sound Designer

Paul Arditti

Casting

Alastair Coomer CDG

Naomi Downham

Associate Director

Zoé Ford Burnett

Associate Set Designer

Amalie White

Dialect Coach

Charmian Hoare

Company Voice Work

Cathleen McCarron

Staff Director

Yasmin Hafesji

It transferred to the Noël Coward Theatre, London, on 18 December 2023 (previews from 9 December). The cast was as follows (in alphabetical order):

LINDA MARSH

Rebecca Collingwood

HUME CRONYN

Allan Corduner

JESSICA LEVY

Elena Delia

GEORGE VOSKOVEC

Ryan Ellsworth

MICK BURROWS

Mark Extance

RICHARD BURTON

Johnny Flynn

SIR JOHN GIELGUD

Mark Gatiss

DILLON EVANS

Daniel Krikler

ROBERT MILLI

Shaun Yusuf McKee

ELIZABETH TAYLOR

Tuppence Middleton

WILLIAM REDFIELD

Luke Norris

CLEMENT FOWLER

Huw Parmenter

SUSANNAH MASON

Stephanie Siadatan

FREDERICK YOUNG

Adam Sina

ALFRED DRAKE

David Tarkenter

CHRISTINE COOPER

Kate Tydman

HUGH McHAFFIE

Laurence Ubong Williams

EILEEN HERLIE

Sarah Woodward

UNDERSTUDIES

SIR JOHN GIELGUD

Ryan Ellsworth

ALFRED DRAKE/WAITER/ GEORGE VOSKOVEC

Mark Extance

ROBERT MILLI/CLEMENT FOWLER/FREDERICK YOUNG

Daniel Krikler

HUGH McHAFFIE

Shaun Yusuf McKee

RICHARD BURTON

Huw Parmenter

JESSICA LEVY/LINDA MARSH/ CHRISTINE COOPER

Stephanie Siadatan

WILLIAM REDFIELD

Adam Sina

HUME CRONYN

David Tarkenter

ELIZABETH TAYLOR/EILEEN HERLIE

Kate Tydman

Director

Sam Mendes

Set Designer

Es Devlin

Costume Designer

Katrina Lindsay

Lighting Designer

Jon Clark

Composer

Benjamin Kwasi Burrell

Sound Designer

Paul Arditti

Casting

Alastair Coomer CDG

Naomi Downham

West End Director

Zoé Ford Burnett

Associate Director

Yasmin Hafesji

Associate Set Designer

Amalie White

Associate Lighting Designer

Ben Jacobs

Associate Sound Designer

George Lumkin

Dialect Coach

Charmian Hoare

The Motive and the Cue is inspired by Letters from an Actor by William Redfield and John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet

Acknowledgements

Sam Mendes, Es Devlin, Rufus Norris, Caro Newling, Rachel Quinney, Clint Dyer, Nina Steiger, Sarah Clarke, William Redfield, Adam Redfield, David Rothberg, Richard Sterne, Rachel Taylor, Rachel Mason, Helena Clark, Stuart Tubby and Mariella Johnson.

J.T.

For Buzz, who taught me bravery this year

Characters

RICHARD BURTON, Hamlet

ROBERT MILLI, Horatio

HUME CRONYN, Polonius

EILEEN HERLIE, Gertrude

LINDA MARSH, Ophelia

WILLIAM REDFIELD, Guildenstern

CLEMENT FOWLER, Rosencrantz

GEORGE VOSKOVEC, Player King

FREDERICK YOUNG, Barnardo

ALFRED DRAKE, Claudius

CHRISTINE COOPER, Player Queen

DILLON EVANS, Osric

SIR JOHN GIELGUD, director and Ghost

JESSICA LEVY, assistant to Sir John

SUSANNAH MASON, stage manager

MICK BURROWS, stage manager

ELIZABETH TAYLOR, a world apart

HUGH MCHAFFIE, a further world apart

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ACT ONE: THE MOTIVE

Scene One

Day One – ‘The Play’s the Thing’

A rehearsal room. It’s 1964. Table and chairs are laid out. The actors are around them and upon them.

Applause from the assembled company, as JOHN GIELGUD stands with a distinguished air.

GIELGUD. Please. Good gracious. Not necessary. It is a joy to see you all here. Wonderful in fact. Before we read, perhaps a few words…

CRONYN. We’re reading now?

GIELGUD. If you don’t mind indulging me.

CRONYN. I think many of us thought we would read tomorrow.

DRAKE. I thought so too.

GIELGUD. I apologise. You were expecting small talk. Yes, it is nice to flirt a little before we get entirely into bed. What should we discuss?

CRONYN. No. We don’t need to – curate discussion…

HERLIE. I’ve plenty to say about those jackals outside. I was not dressed appropriately for pictures –

CRONYN. I was in cream.

HERLIE. – and told them so, but it did not stop them.

CRONYN. Cream.

BURTON. Eileen, I’m sorry, they’re entirely my mess, I should have forewarned you.

HERLIE. It was – tiresome –

BURTON. I apologise to all of you. Nonsense, all of it. I do so hate it.

GIELGUD. ‘Reputation is an idle and most false imposition’ – so hard for you, Dick, such rabidity, but I suppose they may help ticket sales. I took – stage door of course.

Beat. That stops things. He looks around the room.

It’s possibly easier to keep things a little formal. Shall I be mother? Does everyone have the coffee they need? Is there cake? We should have had cake. Breaking bread together I’m not such a fan of, but breaking cake seems altogether better. We won’t go around the room because everyone forgets the non-famous names and knows already the famous ones. But one name I would like to celebrate, this is Jessica, she’s assisting me, she’s delightful.

JESSICA. Hello. Next time I’ll bring cake.

GIELGUD. You see? Before we read, a few things I thought I’d say…

He consults notes, he’s nervous.

Some of you may ask: Why a ‘rehearsal’ production? Why not merely modern dress?

I think this: Like all of you, I have so often seen a final run-through, before the costumes and sets arrive, which had drive and simplicity and… oh, an ease, somehow –

WILLIAM REDFIELD enters the room, surreptitiously. He looks over and sees that everyone’s gathered.

– which the actors never got back once the stone columns and marble tables came on and all the yards and yards of red velvet and blue silk and ruffs and farthingales were tossed about their simple bodies.

BURTON. Some bodies aren’t that simple.

There’s laughter. REDFIELD takes off his coat and then lingers – unwilling to disrupt any further.

GIELGUD. So much for traditional productions. (Without looking at him.) William, as enjoyable as your well-timed entrance is, the agony is beginning to infect us all. Please do sit.

REDFIELD. I’m so sorry. I was caught out by – I’m sorry.

JESSICA brings him a script, which he takes gratefully.

GIELGUD. Very well, then, why not contemporary clothing and drawing-room sets? Because it’s even more depressing really, and I’ve seen so much of it.

There’s more laughter, GIELGUD enjoys it, he’s warming up.

Claudius drinks a dreary martini, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter with frightfully tight – umbrellas –

There’s laughter.

– and Laertes offers Ophelia a Lucky Strike from a gold cigarette case and they both puff away while Polonius talks of the French…

There’s much laughter.

Richard and I have discussed this endlessly –

BURTON. Endlessly –

There’s laughter.

GIELGUD. Oh dear boy, and we finally wondered if it wouldn’t be a neat trick to do it as a run-through. As few props and gimmicks as possible. A pre-dress-rehearsal run-through of a traditional production put on just before the sets have been erected and the costumes fitted. We will all have to be careful of what we wear, but I have so often been fascinated by what actors wear to rehearsals. Have you noticed that what an actor wears on the first day usually indicates how he feels about his part? One even gets a hint of how he feels about himself.

He looks around the room.

Some are confident, some are less confident, some are ready to have confidence thrust upon them.

BURTON stands up and lights a cigarette.

And some think they’re still in their library at home.

BURTON nods with a grin. There’s a scatter of laughter.

Granville-Barker used to say that Hamlet was a permanent rehearsal, and I believe that. I would like you to wear what you would normally wear to rehearsals, and sooner or later we’ll all hit upon something. I think it could work out quite well. Don’t you?

There’s applause.

Good. Now we may read –

BURTON. May I first – say a little –

GIELGUD looks up, surprised.

GIELGUD. It is your stage.

BURTON. Welcome. As I say, I’m sorry for the – fireworks outside. Should die down in a day or two. It’s my responsibility not yours. I hold myself accountable for everything except Hume’s cream.

Laughter.

But I just wanted to say how excited I am to be here, amongst you, and how excited I am to have this wonderful man directing us.

GIELGUD. Oh, if you’re going to stick flowers up my bum you are not allowed to speak –

There’s laughter.

BURTON. Here is a theatrical gentleman in possession of a conviction. And that conviction is the Actor. First and foremost, eternally and always, when it comes to the theatre, the actor. Oh, yes, ‘The play’s the thing!’ but – we all know – the playwright is not an integer.

HERLIE. Amen.

BURTON. If a group of primitive men sit around in a cave, can a playwright entertain them? Not unless he’s a singer, juggler, tight-rope walker, dancer –

GIELGUD. Stripper.

There’s laughter.

BURTON. We are the bullfighters. And this man knows it. He wishes to unleash our skills and put them to Shakespeare’s use. He aims for swiftness, lucidity and a clean, sharp line. We are stripping back the stage, so he can show your worth. Now an actor cannot change during a twenty-five-day rehearsal, nor can any director bestow or bless an actor with more talent –

CRONYN. One can only hope –

There’s laughter.

BURTON. – but a director can memorise an actor, he can identify with him and bring the best from him. Such an approach takes sympathy and faith. That is what we will make, a new Hamlet for our time, held on our shoulders. Together we share the responsibility for what theatre can be – Sir John will unleash it in us – let us rise to his challenge.

There’s even harder applause.

BURTON sits, the joust has begun.

GIELGUD. What wonderful kind words. Quite quite unnecessary. Right. Act One. Scene One. Elsinore. A platform before the castle. Francisco is at his post, Barnardo enters…

The actors settle, open their texts.

BARNARDO. Who’s there…

FRANCISCO. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself…

BARNARDO. Long live the King!

Scene Two

Day Two – ‘We'll Teach You to Drink Deep, ’Ere You Depart’

We are inside the rooms of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. She is effortlessly draped over him.

REDFIELD. I won’t. Thank you.

TAYLOR. ‘I won’t. Thank you.’ Listen to him, all sombre like an actor. You must.

REDFIELD. I don’t drink champagne. The bubbles don’t agree with me.

BURTON. I’m the same, old man. Gives me the farts all night long, does that stop me – ?

TAYLOR. It really doesn’t. Dick once challenged me to a blowing-wind competition and his range was quite extraordinary…

BURTON. She played her part.

TAYLOR. What’ll you be if not champagne?

REDFIELD. Oh. Whatever you have.

BURTON. We have everything.

REDFIELD is shy and embarrassed.

REDFIELD. Beefeater martini?

TAYLOR. Stirred or shaken?

REDFIELD. Shaken.

TAYLOR. A gentleman. No less. An olive? A lemon?

REDFIELD. You really mustn’t…

TAYLOR. I simply must. We have olives and lemons.

BURTON (sung). Olives and lemons said the bells of St Clements, I’m pissed as a newt, said the bells of St Flute.

TAYLOR waits for BURTON to finish.

REDFIELD. No olives. No lemons.

TAYLOR. Frozen glass?

REDFIELD. Please.

She exits. BURTON and REDFIELD are left.

BURTON. She does that. She likes to serve. Gives her – something. I can’t abide it myself. Less of a novelty for me I suspect.

Beat. REDFIELD looks after her and to the door.

The others will be here soon.

REDFIELD. Will Sir John come?

BURTON. He was invited.

REDFIELD nods.

How do you think the old stick is getting on?

REDFIELD. The read-through was very fast.

BURTON. Wasn’t it just?

REDFIELD. And Sir John seemed delighted by it. The speed, I mean…

BURTON. And little else? I thought the same. Though he laughed at your bits.

He drinks.

Beat.

He’s quite right too – speed is everything.

REDFIELD. With Hamlet?

BURTON. When Peter played it – O’Toole I mean – at The Old Vic, they did the full text. The trouble is a Londoner without a private car has to catch the eleven-twenty Underground or he’ll spend the night with friends. Apparently ‘goodnight, sweet Prince’ was not a farewell to dying Hamlet but a sad bye-bye to departing patrons.

REDFIELD (laughing). Shakespeare didn’t consider the subway, clearly.

BURTON. You know, we tossed a coin, he and I, as to who would play the Dane in London and who in New York. I won’t tell you who won.

REDFIELD. And did you do the same over choice of director?

BURTON. He got Larry, he was playing the National. I – Gielgud felt better for this.

Beat.