By Jack Thorne
Directed by Sam Mendes
Set design by Ed Devlin
Composer Benjamin Kwasi Burrell
The Lyttelton Theatre
The National Theatre London
Friday 28th April 2023, 19.30
CAST
Johnny Flynn – Richard Burton as Hamlet
Mark Gattis – Sir John Gielgud, director and ghost
Tuppence Middleton – Elizabeth Taylor
+
Aaron Anthony- Dillon Evans as Osric
Tom Babbage – Mick Burrows, Stage Manager
Allan Corduner- Hume Cronyn as Polonius
Janie Dee- Eileen Hertie as Gertrude
Elena Delia – Susannah Mason, as stage manager
Ryan Ellsworth – George Voskovec as Player King
Phoebe Horn -Linda Marsh as Ophelia
Ayesha Kala – Jessica Levy, Sir John’s assistant
Luke Norris – William Redfield as Guildenstern
Huw Parmenter – Frederick Young as Barnardo
David Ricardo Pearce – Clement Fowler as Rosencrantz
David Takenter as Alfred Drake as Claudius
Kate Tydman – Christine Cooper as Player Queen
Laurence Ubong Williams – Hugh McHaffie in A Further World Apart
Michael Walters – Robert Milli as Horatio
We saw a ‘preview’ but a full-price preview and a late one. Once it’s full price for me, it’s not a preview, just a delayed press night. I’ll add production photos when they appear.
There’s serious quality here. Sam Mendes directed the best Richard III I’ve seen, plus Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, one of the best plays this century. Then Johnny Flynn was in the Globe authentic practices versions of Twelfth Night and Richard III with Mark Rylance, then in Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen and the original version of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem AND we’ve seen him with his band. Mark Gattis is an apposite choice for Sir John Gielgud, as both an actor and a director. It’s written by Jack Thorne. In one day in London we passed Harry Potter and `the Cursed Child at the Cambridge. Saw him advertised with a play about Churchill and the BBC at the Donmar Warehouse, and for Christmas Carol at the Old Vic. Add the National. That is very high coverage of major London venues, and he is the current most successful British theatre writer.
The play shows the rehearsals for the 1964 Broadway Hamlet with Sir John Gielgud (Mark Gattis) directing, and Richard Burton (Johnny Flynn) as Hamlet. This is interwoven with Burton’s marriage with Elizabeth Taylor (Tuppence Middleton). The entire cast have to be based on real actors in the production as well as the roles in Hamlet the actors were playing.
Richard Burton’s Hamlet was the longest running Hamlet on Broadway. It was based on a bet between Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton on the set of Becket. One would play Hamlet in London, directed by Olivier. The other would play Hamlet in New York directed by Gielgud. They tossed a coin. Burton got Gielgud. They had previous … Gielgud had directed Burton in 1951 in The Lady’s Not For Burning, which gave Burton a Best Newcomer award. Thirteen years had passed.
As the production was so popular they decided to do “an NT Live” that is, film a performance, then show it in provincial film theatres. Burton insisted that it should be a once only experience like live theatre, and all the film copies should be destroyed after the run. A copy was discovered by his widow. It came out on video and DVD, Region 1 NTSC only, and no DVDs are currently available. The cast watched the BFI Archive copy as part of rehearsals. (It would seem an obvious item for the NT shop. Perhaps it will be … there is a vinyl LP of extracts going for $149 secondhand on Amazon). The rehearsals are well-documented. William Redfield (playing Guildenstern) wrote a book about it, Letters from an Actor. Richard Sterne, an ensemble actor, secretly taped Burton and Gielgud discussing the role and published John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton Playing Hamlet: A Journal of Rehearsals
Jack Thorne: It was a very difficult production. Burton behaved badly because he didn’t get the direction from Gielgud he felt he required. Or perhaps because he got more direction than he expected. The two, who were prior friends, couldn’t work out how their Hamlet might work … Gielgud, in contrast, was on his uppers: Laurence Olivier was running the National, the Royal Shakespeare Company weren’t much interested in him, and the Royal Court and “modern theatre” was increasingly dominating the West End. He took the job because he didn’t have many other offers. The easy thing to do would have been to allow Burton to dominate. But Hamlet mattered to Gielgud, he’d played him quite definitively more than 300 times, and he wouldn’t let it go. Disaster quickly loomed.
The Guardian, 7 April 2023
This is Hamlet acted in rehearsal clothes, stripped of all extraneous trappings, so allowing the beauty of the language and imagery to shine through.”
Sir John Gielgud, 1964, quoted in “Shakespeare in Performance: Hamlet.”
So Gielgud or Burton – they dispute who- decided that the actors would be in modern dress, as if in street clothes in a rehearsal room. The production would be the final rehearsal room run through without pausing. They weren’t “wear what you like” but carefully costume designer chosen “street clothes.” So Hamlet is dressed all in black street clothes. Burton was wary of, or fed up with, period costume. Ophelia and Gertrude had street clothes and practice skirts over the top- you need to rehearse moving while wearing a floor length skirt.
We’re on a cusp. Listen to Gielgud’s Hamlet. It might draw some derision from a modern audience, and Laurence Olivier is only a shade less archly Thespian. Richard Burton was acclaimed as the new Olivier at the time. This was a sting to Gielgud whose relationship with Olivier was difficult, exacerbated by Olivier’s then current role as director of The National Theatre. Perhaps there is a nod to placate Gielgud’s ghost in presenting this play in The Lyttelton Theatre rather than the adjoining Olivier Theatre. One of Gielgud’s memorable speeches is giving his opinion on Olivier’s Hamlet. It’s tempting to quote the play text, but I’ll avoid it so that the lines come fresh. Gielgud can be very funny.
Burton was a celebrity. A film star. A superstar. His affair with Taylor was hot news. Burton was bringing testosterone to Hamlet- you’d never accuse Gielgud or Olivier of that. Burton was not the “modern Hamlet”. He was the John the Baptist to David Warner’s imminent Messiah in the role at the RSC. Karen saw Warner at Stratford. She’s seen more than a dozen Hamlets, but David Warner was the best.
Michael Billington previewed the concept back in January.
Michael Billington, The Guardian 9 January 2023
Gielgud later lamented: “The American cast did not understand very much of what I was trying to do. All they wanted was motivation.” Best of all is Letters from an Actor by William Redfield, the production’s Guildenstern, in which, while sympathetic to Burton and Gielgud, he says: “Between the two men there is an artistic disagreement, an aesthetic split. It is a fundamental difference of both belief and technique. … I suspect Redfield hit the nail on the head when he said that the production was undone by the aesthetic gulf between its star and its director. Gielgud, whose voice had the supple beauty of a violoncello, took a studiously musical approach to Shakespeare’s text whereas Burton, although vocally well-endowed, was an instinctively naturalistic actor whose quirky and eccentric line-readings were a form of rebellion against the Gielgud tradition.
Burton’s To Be or Not To Be is on YouTube. It is in modern terms, at least ‘heavily-acted’ if not over-acted. The pauses are long. Billington points out that seemingly insignificant words are suddenly stressed – I’d add ‘bellowed.’ Pauses are deliberately unpredictable. We watched it a few times. We have seen several better, in fact most we’ve seen are better. The interesting thing is when Johnny Flynn as Burton does that speech for Gielgud the second time, late in part two of this play, he does not imitate Burton – and is much better than the real thing.
I’ve looked at reactions to the original play back in 1964. Hume Cronyn as Polonius got a Best Supporting Actor Award. Here he’s a supporter of Gielgud- as all the cast are. Then Alfred Drake as Claudius was said to be so bad that Gielgud threatened to drop him and do Claudius himself. We don’t get anything on that in this play. Linda Marsh as Ophelia was so weak that he contemplated flying in Sarah Miles from England. That is discussed with Gielgud’s assistant here. The cast here in The Motive & The Cue have to “be” the actors they’re playing with all their faults. So Phoebe Horn, doing Linda, who will be doing Ophelia, is diffident and awkward in the face of the glamorous and totally assured Elizabeth Taylor, played by Tuppence Middleton.
My preconception was that we would be entirely on Burton’s side as ‘modern’ versus the ‘old school’ Gielgud. Flynn and Gattis turn that around 180 degrees almost immediately. Flynn’s Burton is slightly slurred drunk from the outset and gets drunker. I worked with a director who had acted with Burton in Stratford in the mid 1950s. He said Burton always enjoyed a liquid lunch with several pints. In matinees, they were in armour and you would suddenly smell and hear Burton cheerfully pissing in his armour without breaking the speech. Burton was an alcoholic well before this 1964 event. Gielgud, at a low point in his career, comes across as far the more sympathetic character. Burton comes across as a loud arrogant prat. Brilliant acting by both. They are completely acceptable as channeling the two actors. I really had not expected to be on Gielgud’s team. I was. You will be.
The rehearsal room reveals process. The director is there to coax Burton’s Hamlet out of him. Coax not coach, and woe betide him if he crosses the line. The performance is supposed to be found in the rehearsal period, and actors who start out with a full-on performance are frowned upon. Bad form. There is the gap between the rest and the highly experienced stage actors, such as Eileen Hertie playing Gertrude (Janie Dee), who know exactly how they’re going to play it the day they’re cast. They have my sympathy, as in film you expect the casting director to have made the choice in the first place. ‘Let’s find absolutely everything about it in rehearsal’ is a nod to democracy which at extremes results in messes like The Globe’s director-less ‘Globe Ensemble’ productions. Even at the speed of filming ELT comedy and drama, which is my experience, actors change and develop the role, but they don’t have to read flat on the first run through. I was shocked in America where the first group reading (to be followed by questions) was virtually in a monotone from all the actors. Also I understand Gielgud on motivation. As the writer on set in the USA I found myself sweating hard to talk about back story and motivation, You are tempted to say ‘he’s a museum attendant with five lines. I have no idea how many kids he has, whether he is constipated or what he had for breakfast. And no British actor would ask me that.’
The set has three main areas. The full stage is the rehearsal room. Black panels crop this down to Taylor’s red-walled hotel suite. Then it is cropped smaller again to form Gielgud’s modest blue hotel room. Between changes, the black panel completely obscures the stage and we get action in front of it, The ending, the actual theatre first night, is the entire area in black with no set. The final vision of the stage from behind is the ending.
Gattis gives an acting masterclass. Writing this, I keep forgetting to say ‘Mark Gattis’ because he so thoroughly becomes Gielgud. The scene with a rent boy in his hotel is poignant and motivates him on how to squeeze the performance out of Burton. We see him being forced against his will to comment. In exasperation he tells Burton that Burton’s loud Hamlet would not be indecisive, he would have killed Claudius right at the start of the play. I realize I also forget to say ‘Johnny Flynn’ too. He IS Burton. The scene where Polonius is killed is a high point- no plot spoilers.
As with the original real people, there is a massive contrast between Gattis’ soft precise delivery and Flynn’s Burtonesque roaring that does not assist audibility even near the front, as we were. My companion uses hearing aids in the theatre and suffered battery failure in the first half. I went to get her a headset in the interval, and they were a popular interval item.
Tuppence Middleton looks glamorous, and she does the “smart” Elizabeth Taylor especially well. It’s Taylor who gives Gielgud the key to Burton’s performance: she reveals that his feelings to his own father were not positive. In spite of lines telling Burton she has no knickers on (would Taylor have used such a word rather than panties?) and a steamy embrace when Burton leaps on top of her, there wasn’t Taylor’s full on (later blowsy) sexuality. She is set an impossible task, not only playing someone hailed as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ but also playing someone dripping sensuality. Several reviews mention that.
The initial idea for the play came from Sam Mendes. In this play, Hamlet’s instructions to the Players become central to the argument on how to play it. Interviews suggest Thorne and Mendes were concerned that they might be expecting too much detailed knowledge of Hamlet. The curtain call got a standing ovation – not quite the explosive instant one Sheridan Smith received the night before, but still pretty fast and near universal and well above average for the National, but then Gattis, Flynn and Middleton gave full-on five star performances. You rarely see the like. On the other hand, this is the NATIONAL THEATRE early in the run. I’ve been involved with Hamlet this year in quite a different way, and have read it several times in a few months and re-watched several filmed versions. Not only that I did it for A level. And I think the nuances require not only a knowledge of Hamlet, but also one beyond the most obvious bits. While perfect for The National Theatre, I can’t see it as a hit in the West End nor on tour then (well, it’d work in Stratford).
We are rewatching a theatrical event that took place 59 years ago too. Are Sir John Gielgud and Richard Burton still names to conjure with? Is it Drama history at an arcane level? I felt my enjoyment was greatly enhanced by knowing Hamlet well, the period, and Burton and Taylor’s filmography. Is all that irrelevant for a younger audience? Is it playing to us oldies 60s baby boomers who remember it, just as twenty years ago audiences who were then my age now revelled in Ayckbourn, and ones ten years older loved Rattigan? Theatres pandered to that to get bums on seats. Then there are a lot of theatrical in jokes. Gielgud’s references to ‘Larry’ get laughs. There is a lot on acting styles and directing styles. I’ve worked with directors who direct ostensibly (a small minority) and directors who keep up a pretence that actors are finding their own way. Flynn’s Burton is appalled at thinking Gielgud is giving him specific line readings. Gattis’ Gielgud is falling over backwards to avoid giving line readings, but has to. So is it all for baby boomers with a strong knowledge of Hamlet who know Burton and Taylor’s work, and know or are interested in learning about acting and directing? My conclusion is ‘yes, quite a bit’ which is why it’s not quite a five star play. I’ll rest my case on the number who laughed at the presented speculation on Burton and Taylor eventually playing Petruchio and Katherine in`the Taming of the Shrew which of course they did. A lot of people don’t know that in the country in general. Tonight, most people knew that. Mendes and Thorne must realize that in 2023, they are doing what Burton did in 1964, putting credibility in serious theatre above potential money elsewhere.
It adds a dimension if you watch Gielgud and Burton doing the ‘to be or not to be ‘ speech on YouTube in advance. Watch Olivier doing the speech too. Gielgud is indeed funny and accurate in describing that in the play.
The whole left me wanting to find and read Redfield’s and Sterne’s books, and to watch the whole of Burton’s Hamlet. Let’s make it four and a half stars then.
**** 1/2
ASIDE
I have slept in Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s bed. No, they were not present. We were filming in Oxford, and the cast and crew were staying at The Bear Hotel in Woodstock. After the first week, I went home for the weekend, and on the Sunday drove back to Woodstock late for an early Monday morning call. We had something at home, a child’s party. I didn’t leave Bournemouth till after 9 pm and got to The Bear well after 11 p.m, nearer midnight. I was shown to my room. The bed was rumpled, and a used condom was on the floor. At least a knot had been tied in it. Thoughtful. I sensed the receptionist was about to have a fit. She explained that ‘staff members’ must have decided I was a no-show and that they could make use of the room. ‘We’re absolutely full,’ she said, ‘I only have the Taylor-Burton suite.’ She said this had been their regular trysting place over a long period, and was a two storey cottage in the car park. It was rarely in use because it was so expensive, not that I would be charged the difference. I was escorted to it and kept it for the week. It was good for meetings with producer, director and camera operator, and drinks with the cast too, The cast were amazed that the scriptwriter had been awarded such luxurious accommodation. ‘The value of the scriptwriter has been truly recognised at last,’ I said.
PROGRAMME
5 star. A template on how to do a programme. Informative, well-written, and it enhances the production. I wish they’d pay for some cover design though. The matt ‘economy’ recyclable cover is daft when you have glossy colour inside.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
4 star
Domenic Cavendish, The Telegraph ****
Quentin Letts, Sunday Times ****
Clive Davis, The Times ****
Patrick Marmion, Daily Mail ****
Jessie Thompson, Independent ****
Nick Curtis, Evening Standard ****
Those who get all the references and in-jokes and know Hamlet inside out – hardcore theatre nerds like me – will probably love it. Others may find it overly smug and self-referential.
Nick Curtis
Alice Saville, The i ****
Marianka Swain, London Theatre ****
3 star
Arifa Akbar, Guardian ***
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out ***
LINKS ON THIS BLOG
HAMLET ON THIS BLOG
There is an excellent programme essay by Sarah Crompton on how, as Gielgud says, every actor has to find “a Hamlet” for themselves and listing several. She misses Jonathan Slinger at the RSC in 2013. In retrospect, his Hamlet grows in my estimation. This is the geek in his thirties who’s come back to live at home, to the despair of his mother and stepfather who had hoped he’d ‘got a life.’
- Hamlet – NT 2010 Rory Kinnear as Hamlet
- Hamlet- Young Vic 2011 Michael Sheen as Hamlet
- Hamlet RSC 2013 Jonathan Slinger as Hamlet
- Hamlet – Globe 2014
- Hamlet – Maxine Peake, NT Live Broadcast from Manchester Royal Exchange
- Hamlet- Benedict Cumberbatch, 2015, Barbican, London
- Hamlet, RSC 2016 Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet, Stratford
- Hamlet, Almeida 2017, BBC 2018, Andrew Scott as Hamlet
SAM MENDES (Director)
The Ferryman, by Jez Butterworth, Royal Court, London 2017
King Lear, National Theatre, 2014, with Simon Russell-Beale
Richard III,Old Vic 2011, with Kevin Spacey
1917 (film)
JOHNNY FLYNN
Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit, Hyde Park 2018 (MUSIC)
True West by Sam Shepard, 2018
Hangmen, by Martin McDonagh, Royal Court, London 2015
Twelfth Night, Globe / Apollo 2012 (Viola)
Richard III Globe, Apollo 2012 (Lady Anne / Lord Grey)
Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, 2011
The Dig (FILM)
MARK GATTIS
Operation Mincemeat (film 2022)
The Unfriend, by Steven Moffat, Chichester2022 (DIRECTOR)
Dad’s Army (film, 2016)
Coriolanus (NT Live), 2014
TUPPENCE MIDDLETON
Mank (film) 2020
Downton Abbey (film) 2019
TOM BABBAGE
Peter Pan Goes Wrong, 2019
DAVID RICARDO PEARCE
Kiss Me Kate, The Watermill, 2019
The Famous Five. A New Musical, Chichester 2022
LUKE NORRIS
A View From The Bridge, Young Vic 2014 (Rodolpho)
As You Like It, RSC 2013 (Oliver)
Hamlet, RSC2013 (Laertes)
LAURENCE UBONG WILLIAMS
The Deep Blue Sea, Chichester 2019
The Watsons, Chichester 2018
PHOEBE HORN
Much Ado About Nothing, National Theatre, 2022
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