Sam Mendes was in New York before the pandemic, when he came across a book by little-known actor Richard L Sterne about his time on a legendary production of Hamlet on Broadway. This 1964 show was directed by John Gielgud, one of the greats of English theatre, and starred Richard Burton, then one half of the most famous couple on the planet. It proved an explosive mix.
Sterne’s book was called, rather prosaically, John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton Playing Hamlet: A Journal of Rehearsals but it offered an extraordinary insight into the tensions and the conflicts that went into making that show. And the source could not have been closer to the action. Stern went to great lengths to get the material, at one stage hiding under the stage to secretly record a discussion between the director and his star.
