The Constituent had so much going for it. Thirteen years ago, James Corden tugged the massive One Man, Two Guvnors across the National’s stage as easily as a child pulling a toy boat; now he returns to the theatre alongside the infinitely subtle Anna Maxwell Martin. Playwright Joe Penhall proved in Blue/Orange (2000) that he can make an intimate encounter resound with social and personal tension. He has now lit on essential subjects in the confrontation between a conscientious, besieged female MP and a troubled ex-soldier who is installing an alarm system in her office. Jo Cox’s murder has been mentioned in connection with the play. Two days before press night, the windows of MP Stella Creasy’s headquarters were smashed by a hooded man with a hammer.
Yet despite the urgent core, Matthew Warchus’s production only pads across the stage. Drama is signalled between scenes by blasts of the Smiths and Billy Bragg but is more declared than evident. The dialogue is heavy with explanation and the action slowed by overload: not only the threats to female MPs, not only the difficulties of being an often absent parent; Corden’s character, unsupported by underfinanced social services, suffers from the breakdown of his marriage, memories of Afghanistan and being bullied as a whistleblower.
