James Corden, after a string of comedy and entertainment credits – One Man, Two Guvnors; Gavin and Stacey; and, more recently, an eight-year stint as the host of The Late, Late Show – returns to the West End stage for a much more serious and emotionally charged role, contained in a mere 90-minute runtime which packs in the emotion, but doesn’t allow for many political observations. Quite frustrating when The Constituent finds itself staged – not by choice, mind – in the middle of a general election campaign.
Corden plays Alec, a former military intelligence soldier who was tasked with ‘turning people’ in Afghanistan who now works in security, fitting panic alarms and cameras for backbench opposition MP Monica (Line of Duty and Constellations actor Anna Maxwell Martin). Zachary Hart (An Enemy of the People) completes the company as Mellor, a police protection officer.
The tension builds after Alec confides in Monica that he’s currently contesting a custody case surrounding his children and his former partner. Not afraid to speak his mind, he faces that particular problem because his partner alleges he has made “threatening” remarks towards her and her new lover. And lo, the potential for things to escalate – as much as both Alec and Monica talk about working to de-escalate situations – is established early on, and naturally, things do soon go out of control, as a frank and comically candid Alec collides with a more emotionally guarded Monica.
As the MP struggling with the extent to which she can and must disengage with a volatile constituent, Martin is fantastic in conveying the weight and anguish of balancing familial, personal and political duties in a single facial expression. The performances are undoubtedly the strongest aspect of this production, providing a depth and development of character in the absence of more creative ideas.
For instance, director Matthew Warchus could have done more with Rob Powell’s bare office set through the exploration of seating arrangements to denote power dynamics. Most of the time it’s Monica talking down to a seated Alec when, as the story unfolds, it’s clear the conflict is far more level than a case of an MP towering above a constituent. The power play is fascinating – Martin’s delivery of the promotional line “I am not your punch bag; I am a Member of Parliament” is scathing – but we don’t see it embodied much in Warchus’ direction.
And when there’s a blackout for one of the show’s many scene changes, the red lighting from Hugh Vanstone flips to a cooler blue. To say this is a clever nod to the two main parties – while I suspect that is what it is – seems too generous a note, as the creative decision in itself doesn’t reflect anything contained in Joe Penhall’s script. Indeed, the only direct swipe at any UK political party is a one-liner on the Liberal Democrats.
Can such an oversight be excused when the story is speaking to a more cross-party issue of MP’s personal security versus availability to constituents? Probably, but numerous aspects of the play flirt with the ideas surrounding the current UK political landscape but not to a satisfactory level, and against the backdrop of a general election, I can’t help but feel like some audience members would expect a few more contemporaneous points to be made.
The difficulty is that the plot at the core of The Constituent does what is required and is well-rounded, so I’m divided on whether it needs to be fleshed out further – to allow for ideas to ‘sit’ for a while longer – or whether to do so would be to sacrifice the play’s intensity, however much that, unfortunately, allows for brevity, too.
It helps to have a copy of the playtext to review dialogue you might have missed the first time around (Corden and Hart project far greater than Martin), but when it comes to seeing it staged in this Old Vic version, the most interesting element is exactly who comes up top here. For all the talk from Alec about offering people an ‘out’, is it the case by the end of the play that it’s the opposite? An intelligent prospect, which together with strong performances, is just enough to spark intrigue as the overarching idea, but it isn’t satisfying or thorough enough in 90 minutes to tick – or rather, cross – all the right boxes.
★★★
The Constituent is now playing at The Old Vic Theatre until 10 August.
It will be British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted, captioned and audio described on 23, 26 and 31 July respectively.
A relaxed performance – which will also be captioned, audio described and BSL-interpreted – will take place on 27 July.
Production Images: Manuel Harlan.
Liam O'Dell 