The Constituent
The Old Vic, London

IT’S rare, in the current climate, to explore the intimate life of a good, well-meaning MP, but Joe Penhall’s The Constituent does just that. 

Monica, played with earnest conviction by Anna Maxwell Martin, is an opposition backbencher, bravely fielding responsibility at every turn. Personally, she’s an overstretched wife, daughter and mum; professionally her time is filled — not so much with the glamour of Westminster but with a relentless stream of troubled constituents at her regular surgery. 

It’s democracy in action: power listening to people. And Alec, our eponymous constituent, is desperate to be heard.  

The play opens tentatively on a traverse stage with Monica gabbling into her phone at breakneck speed. When Alec wanders in as if by accident, we are unsure if we should applaud immediately, or at least giggle. After all, this is James Corden, the show’s star. 

But this is no light comedy; it is a story of our times. And Corden — once we’ve got over how like Gavin and Stacey’s Smithy he sounds — brings us a profoundly affecting performance as a very real man with very real suffering.

An ex-serviceman from the extremes of warfare in Afghanistan, Alec is on the brink of a bitter divorce. His wife has a new man and he is in heartbreak at losing his kids. At the outset, he is a zero-hours contract employee, fitting, somewhat ominously, an alarm system and panic button in Monica’s office. They get talking, he oversteps the mark and suddenly Monica feels herself at risk. 

Though never mentioned, the murder of Jo Cox hangs heavy in the air. A police protection officer is brought in (played with wonderfully careless ease by the excellent Zachary Hart) and matters escalate.

Only when Monica stays true to her belief in mercy and compassion does restorative justice take precedence over punitive action, and something of trust and care brings a glimmer of hope to what Alec devastatingly describes as this “dead country.”

The play is deeply thought-provoking and immensely topical. After all, death threats plague our elected representatives on an almost daily basis and many men fall foul of our society, with our laws, it seems, riding roughshod over individual pain.

This play is a three-hander, much on the lines of Penhall’s supreme Blue/Orange, but too much hasty dialogue and not enough building of Monica’s fear means it doesn’t work as well. And, unlike Blue/Orange, it shouldn’t be a three-hander. The constituency office would have staff, the police officer would have colleagues, and many others interested in the case would intervene. For this reason, something of reality is missing and, when Monica’s office is trashed, it feels fabricated, and we know instinctively that the supposed culprit is not as suggested. The dramatic turning point from civilised intercourse to a nightmare of real fear is thus never fully realised.

Director Matthew Warchus brings us an accomplished production though. And, while the cast unerringly immerse themselves in this serious interface between political dreams and its reality, Corden’s metamorphosis from comedy to drama truly impresses.  

Runs until August 10. Box office: 0344 871-7628, www.oldvictheatre.com.