Things have come to a pretty pass when MPs are wearing stab vests at surgeries; when abuse towards them is so constant – the threat of violence so real. That’s the thrust of this frustrating play by Joe Penhall, creator of Netflix’s Mindhunter and other good things, who cuts away the outer scab of political discourse – politicians are all venal power-hungry expenses-diddling egoists etc – to try to get at something more substantial, more careful and more human underneath.
In a much-heralded return to the London stage after years spent in LA hosting late-night American telly, James Corden plays Alec, an Afghanistan veteran who’s about to lose custody of his children. Motherland star Anna Maxwell Martin is his MP Monica, who, in trying to help, gets pulled into a dangerous situation. It’s a good setup, but one that Penhall doesn’t manage to prosecute. It’s trying so hard to be a political, timely, relevant play that the characters become mouthpieces and the thing becomes schematic.
