Review: THE CONSTITUENT, The Old Vic Theatre

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

The Old Vic has been reconfigured for Joe Penhall’s play, which is presented in traverse with a large, well-raked bank of seating on stage. The Constituent is a three-hander and the reconfiguring adds an appropriately gladiatorial feel to the auditorium, as well as presumably greatly increasing the seating capacity. Monica is an MP and the play takes place in her surgery, focusing on a developing relationship with one of her constituents, Alec, and the interventions from Mellor, responsible for her security.

Played out in a series of short scenes, the play makes good points about the reality of MPs faced with meeting constituents with limited security and in an age when this has led in the past to considerable violence or even murder. Alec, the constituent, is ex-forces and we see how those experiences have not prepared him for what comes next after discharge, or indeed helped him deal with his experiences while serving his country.

The character of Mellor mostly serves as a sounding board for the other characters and seems to be standing for authority in all its reliance on rules and failure to recognise individual differing needs. Zachary Hart is good in the part, entirely believable as a jobsworth security officer but increasingly revealed as part of the problem, not the solution.

The majority of the action is between MP and constituent however, with Anna Maxwell-Martin as well-meaning and hard-working Monica. She is highly convincing in the role although her part seems to have been written with little of the backstory that we hear about Alec. It is a mark of the actor’s quiet authority that Monica is more than a cipher for a typical devoted MP struggling with a chaotic infrastructure.

Opposite her as Alec, James Corden convinces throughout, from his early appearances installing security cameras and recognising Monica from this school-days, through the inevitable downward spiral to become a shell of his former self. His is the character that changes and develops most, and he carries the audience with him as he portrays this narrative arc through an impressive performance.

Director Matthew Warchus has made good use of the traverse setting and does his best with staging the many short fragmented scenes that make up the 1 hr 25 mins running time of the play (down from the 1 hr 40 mins listed in the programme). He covers the set changes and attempts to build bridges between scenes by the use of loud music, effective at first but becoming repetitive later. Kudos, too, to Fight Director Terry King for his work. The short running time and brief scenes suggest the intended home of this piece might have been as a television play, and it is likely it might have been rather more effective there.

The Constituent remains an enthralling watch, with much humour in the early stages, and does not outstay its welcome. If some of the issues remain unresolved, that is not down to the cast, all three of whom impress in this thoughtful play dealing with an important topic.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Chris Abbott

The Constituent plays at the Old Vic Theatre until 10 August, with tickets available here.