Sam Mendes stars Johnny Flynn, Tuppence Middleton and Mark Gatiss as Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and John Gielgud in Hot New Play

EXCLUSIVE: Sam Mendes chose Johnny Flynn (Emma, ​​animal), Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey, Mank) and by Sherlock Mark Gatiss stars legendary stars Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and John Gielgud The motive and the clue a beautiful new play by Jack Thorne that explores how acting giants Burton and Gielgud performed hamlet 1964 on Broadway.

Burton, newly married to Taylor after their affair on the set of an epic movie Cleopatrasigned to play the Danish prince in a legendary production directed by Gielgud in New York.

On opening night in April 1964, dozens of police officers surrounded crowds as eager to catch a glimpse of Taylor entering the Lunt Fontanne Theater as they were to see her husband as the depressed Dane.

Oscar, Tony and Olivier winner Mendes directs The motive and the keyword at the National Theater in London, where it opens at the NT’s Lyttelton Theater in May 2023. Mendes secured the role from Burton and Gatiss for Flynn to take on Gielgud a few months ago, but his search for an actress to play Taylor has been put on hold for his critically acclaimed new film rich in light at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals.

Taylor was the biggest movie star around in 1964, says Caro Newling, who co-founded Neal Street Productions with Pippa Harris and Mendes. “She was a big star, just like Burton and Gielgud,” Newling told us.

Mendes and Newling began the project during lockdown, and Newling later became a detective tracking down out-of-print books and archival material dating back to 1964. hamlet. Neal Street, the indie company in All3Media that started nearly 20 years ago, then brought Thorne, the author of Is dark material and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, write The motif and the cue – The title comes from a passage in a monologue hamlet. The play was developed and co-produced by the National Theater and Neal Street Productions.

As skilled on stage as he is on screen, Flynn excelled in the original productions of Martin McDonagh’s Royal Court and West End plays Hangman. “It feels like a great story to tell now why we tell stories and why we revisit certain stories,” Flynn told Deadline in a statement The motive and the keyword.

Gatiss, who won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Patrick Marber’s National Theater adaptation of Turgenev’s poignant comedy Three days in the countrysaid he was excited to be part of “this wonderful company” and “wasn’t a bit impressed to play Sir John. But it’s about the play, as someone once said!”

The actor praised Thorne’s “beautiful, moving and sensitive play that we can’t wait to bring to the National”.

Middleton, who recently starred in an ITV series our house and in Downton Abbey: A New Era, performed in two Off-West End theater productions: The one and The living room. The actress will next appear in a feature film, The Lord of Mismanagement. In a comment to us released by the National, Middleton said she was “delighted to play the iconic Elizabeth Taylor in her National Theater debut.”

Deadline has the news of The motive and the keyword head to the National Theater in July and we’ll keep you updated on the celebrated partnership between the National Theater and Neal Street Productions on the much talked about play, the Lehman Trilogy, which heads to London’s Gillian Lynne Theater in January alongside Michael Balogun, Hadley Fraser and Nigel Lindsay.

Allan Corduner, Ryan Ellsworth, Aysha Kala, Luke Norris, Michael Walters and Laurence Ubong Williams are also present The motive and the keyword Cast of us revealed today.

The play’s creative team includes: production design by Es Devlin; Katrina Lindsay, costume designer; Jon Clark, lighting design; composer Benjamin Kwasi Burrell; Paul Arditti, sound designer; and Luke Halls, video designer. Deputy Director is Zoe Ford Burnett.

Newling and Mendes discovered two books: that of Richard Sterne John Gielgud is directing Richard Burton’s Hamlet and that of William Redfield Letters from an actor Both volumes have Gielgud’s dressed adaptation of hamlet and the often different views that Gielgud and Burton had of the difficult Dane.

The underlying rights to both books were acquired through production. It became one of next year’s most anticipated new tracks.