The acclaimed National Theatre production which opened at the Lyttelton theatre in April 2023 has now transferred into the West End for December 2023, by popular demand. Written by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Stranger Things: The First Shadow), the play takes us backstage to rehearsals for the legendary 1964 Broadway production of Richard Burton’s Hamlet.

Theoretically, the drama comes in the clash between young superstar actor Richard Burton (Johnny Flynn) and aging director Sir John Gielgud (Mark Gatiss). But while both historical character studies are impressively well-drawn, the audience already knows that their collaboration would produce a record-breaking theatrical success. Truthfully, the play portrays the two as fellow explorers and professional artists, rather than as two divas at loggerheads. As a result, the stakes remain low throughout: and the drama has nothing on the Shakespeare classic that the play is about.

Perhaps the most exciting theatrical moment comes in Gielgud’s private, secret interaction with a male prostitute he has hired (Laurence Ubong Williams). Where the real Gielgud spent his life closeted, playing heterosexual characters on stage, here we see backstage become centre stage, and his hidden homosexuality thrust out onto the very same boards that Gielgud trod in real life.

The title is quite clever. In Hamlet’s Act 2 Scene 2 speech where Hamlet decides, “The play’s the thing / wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king,” Hamlet starts by asking himself about an actor (“First Player”) visiting the town: “What would he do / Had he the motive and the cue for passion / That I have?” For fans of Shakespeare, it’s a vaguely thought-provoking exploration of the fact that there is no right “way” to do Hamlet. As to whether this play catches our conscience: well, probably not.

Playing at the Noël Coward Theatre 9 December 2023 – 23 March 2024.