Richard Hammond

Just out of The Motive and the Cue at The National. Flip. Me. I'm wrung out by it. The first half is all theatre magic and Shakespeare in-jokes. It helps if you know the history of Guilguid versus Olivier and Burton versus O'Toole. This is the story of the production of down on his luck Guilguid's 1963 Broadway production of Hamlet, with a wild Richard Burton playing the Dane and struggling to accept the older actor's direction. Then the second half? Oh my, it cashes in every penny spent in the first. This is a classic bait and switch, the promotion let's you believe this is one man's play where the production reveals at the end that it is another's. The moments of hair raising magic are many and the final roar of the audience fitting reward. That was bloody special.