When a theater complex houses multiple stages, resonances can be drawn between simultaneous productions.

Case in point: whether intentional or not, both Dear England and The Motive and the Cue at London’s National Theatre chronicle historical episodes where characters wrestle with the push-pull of a famous lineage.

Dear England recounts the recent exploits of the country’s national soccer/football team, specifically how the institution struggles to balance continuing to honor its revered traditions all while attempting to change them in order to improve results.

And The Motive and the Cue explores how deeply Hamlet‘s venerable performance history can hover over modern-day interpreters, akin to Hamlet’s dad and everything he represents in the text.

The players on Dear England’s national team and the players in The Motive and the Cue’s company of Hamlet perform under the looming specter of the past, and the tentacle reach of its glorified, timeless memories. Both plays contemplate how to play a role that operates within a historic legacy, pitting together conflicting perspectives on how to respect tradition — of what to preserve and what to modify.