The week in theatre: The Motive and the Cue; A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction; Jules et Jim; Supernova – review

‘Cutting allure’: Johnny Flynn, far left, as Richard Burton, with Tuppence Middleton, far right, as Elizabeth Taylor and company in The Motive and the Cue. Photograph: Mark Douet

The longest-running Hamlet in Broadway history was staged in 1964. Richard Burton was the Prince; John Gielgud directed him; Elizabeth Taylor, newly married to Burton, was sultrying around offstage. Rehearsals were not smooth.

Coming across firsthand accounts of those rehearsals – in letters and tapes made by two cast members – director Sam Mendes saw dramatic potential: a confrontation of traditional and modern acting styles; a contrast between a rising celebrity and a fading lead; a way of capturing the changing pulse of a production, celebrating live theatre, rather as his luminous Margate movie Empire of Light celebrated cinema. He approached Jack Thorne – of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Let the Right One In – to write a play.