The Constituent - Old Vic (J. Corden, A. Maxwell Martin)

Three actors/characters, and three acting styles. James Corden is excellent, drawing on the cadences of real life to bring the words to life with fresh and breezy realism. Anna Maxwell Martin probably has the more wordy speeches (I haven't looked at in on the page) and adopts that kind of 'listing/ticking things off' delivery that isn't completely unfamiliar from real life (middle class professionals), but is really most often heard in...plays, when there's loads of stuff to get through. Then the policeman is playing it for comedy. I wished they were all on Corden's page, and/or the writing had let them be there.

Every point where the drama ratchets up felt very engineered, with all the workings showing. The inciting incident - Corden's character simply suggesting his estranged wife is using the kids for 'control' - is taken as a dangerous outrage by the MP that could lead him into legal hot water. I've certainly learned something if that's the case, but the MP never passes through that moment where her much vaunted empathy is shown, before being more sorely tested later until she snaps. Without going into spoilers, if I'd been part of a chain of incidents that affected someone's life, on seeing them again I'd take a bit longer to check how they'd take being told they smell! In everyday life most people have better diplomacy and de-escalation skills when negotiating beggars on the tube or in the street. But other than Corden's performance it just doesn't feel drawn from life.

The long scene changes aren't needed - except it feels that the director does want us to hear the lyrics; as if knowing the play isn't enough on its own. That's a huge chunk of Billy Bragg's 'Between The Wars' we listen to. "And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage" sings Bragg. Yet the song isn't that relevant to the play - Corden's character isn't on the scrap heap of unemployment post army.

The music choices make the play feel dated. Neither The Smiths or Billy Bragg are without problems and detractors in 2024 - Morrissey for offensive racial comments and saying he gets his news from various conspiracy theorists and youtube grifters, and Bragg is hated on social media by those fiercely sceptical of gender fluidity and allies to that cause. Now that really is a divided and confusing world in the midst of which an ex-squaddie divorced from the comforting discipline and routine of the army might lose his grip.