“There is a real sense of remove too as we watch actors playing actors who, in turn, are playing characters in Hamlet, or unpicking the meanings of the play, scene by scene. Ultimately, this play-about-the-play leaves us wishing we had been there to see Burton in the real thing.”
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"This is a witty, deft, touching evocation of a fascinating, fraught encounter that captures the mood of those times. "
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" 'The Motive and the Cue' generates sufficient excitement not to require chivvying along from an outside source: the play and its players are in every way the thing."
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“Thorne’s play might have too much theatrical in-joking and navel-gazing for some...But the genuine love for the medium is incredibly touching and Thorne cleverly balances that with affectionate lampooning and occasional sharp skewering.”
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“Mendes’ production, although initially a little slow to find its rhythm, is always absorbing – theatre about theatre, and about striving to achieve, in this ephemeral art form, a kind of immortality.”
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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.”
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"You’ll get goosebumps watching The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre – it’s a side effect of being in the company of ghosts. Jack Thorne’s deeply affecting play ... is about a lot of things...but perhaps most of all, it’s an ode to the idea that there’s beauty in the endeavour."
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“It’s entertaining, with a rousing finale, but I wish ‘The Motive and the Cue’ had more of the grit and weirdness of ‘Hamlet’, not just borrowed its poetry...‘The Motive and the Cue’ may be a love letter to theatre, but in the end it feels a little too Hollywood.”
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