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

[andbingowashisname]

Jul 10, 2024 12:26:08 GMT marob said:

Wonder what happens tonight. Understudy going on? Because God forbid he miss the footie.

The England game kicks off at 8pm this evening so anyone at the show (Corden included) will be able to tune in to the second half (and potentially extra time and penalties) as The Constituent should be finished by around 9pm. Ironically I'd be surprised if the show goes up even a minute late tonight.

Completely agree with Being Alive above. There seems to be a slight strain of puritanism in those troubled by Corden's antics on Saturday night. We have to be amenable to the odd quirk of behaviour and the odd delay in life otherwise we become joyless automatons.

Nobody can be pleased by everything but hopefully we can summon the empathy and understanding to at least condone the things that do not please us, and differentiate them from the things that we strongly object to.

For someone whose judgement is often called into question on this occasion I think Corden got it right.

[max]

Football kick-off is 8pm
Play starts 7.30pm for 90 mins, no interval.

Corden and co will be done by 9pm, just in time for the start of the second half.

If they want to catch a bit of half-time analysis they could speed up the ridiculous scene changes, and skip Billy Bragg for one night. Now would be a result!

[max]

I didn't think it through and booked for 'Babies' ages ago.

So no football for me. Well, just the last (probably agonising) 15 mins.

If 'Sunset Boulevard' was still on they could have shown it on the big screen. I presume there are screens at 'Romeo & Juliet'.

Makes me wonder if Jamie Lloyd is the son of Grandad from 'Only Fools and Horses' - something started this fixation.

[ceebee]

Was there a show stop just now for the Harry Kane penalty for England?

[ncbears]

If The Constituent started on time and finished on time, then Corden et al were able to see late heroics by England, again.

[mattnyc]

I went this afternoon even though I’m (putting this gently) NOT a Corden fan but try to see everything I can and possibly the biggest surprise of the year, I REALLY enjoyed this and him. Absolutely a show I’ll be recommending to people.

[sf]

OK. So.

Anna Maxwell Martin - very good indeed.
James Corden - superb (and I loathe his TV persona) in a role that's miles from the comedic performances that made him famous.

The production - those set-changes didn't need to be that long. There was an uncomfortable sense of a director trying to pad a rather short play.

The play - predictable, written-by-rote stuff until the last scene - and the writing for Zachary Hart's character is just plain bad, and gets worse as the play progresses. The last scene is very moving indeed, though, and vastly better written than the hour-and-a-quarter of stage time leading up to it.

Overall: three stars. Very strong performances in a mostly mediocre play.

[showgirl]

I saw the matinee yesterday and was surprised to see how full the auditorium was (so far as I could tell from the normal, as opposed to stage. stalls) - though I know the reviews had been good. It dragged a bit for me until the pace picked up; I think this was for a combination of reasons but largely due to most scenes being very static (only 2 set elsewhere) and the dialogue being batted back and forth by the 2 main characters, rather like a tennis match in which neither player is willing to concede. Also - and probably heresy, this: I found the voices of both Anna Maxwell Martin and James Corden rather too similar and wearing - though the police officer, despite adding some vocal variety, was made to behave in a way I found implausible. So this didn't really engage or move me or even hold my interest fully at any stage and I was quite surprised by the ovation at the end but am evidently out of step with the majority and wouldn't have booked had I not received a bargain offer.

[parsley1]

Has to be a candidate for truly one of the worst and laziest plays I have ever seen

Lack of any plausible plot or nuance or realism

Characters so lightweight and parodied it must be painful to play them

Less believable and about as sophisticated as an episode of Doctors

An embarrassment for the playwright, director, and both lead actors

God knows why you would sign up to this rubbish

Almost makes Slave Play seem like high art

[ceebee]

Don't diss Doctors

parsley1

You never know when

You might need one

[parsley1]

Jul 11, 2024 20:30:09 GMT ceebee said:

Don't diss Doctors

parsley1

You never know when

You might need one

m

One from the BBC 1 show

Will be of little help

[TallPaul]

You mean nice Christopher Timothy isn't a real doctor? I hope he's a real veterinarian!

[joem]

A decent play which maybe muddies its targets a little bit and has difficulty in reining in the laughs when the going gets serious but there are some genuine laughs in the early part and the moral conundrums are fairly well laid out. I did feel perhaps the Corden character should have been a tad less sympathetic, in order to emphasise the difficulties faced by MPs in carrying out their jobs in the face of threats and violence. I'd say this is about 3.5/5.

Haven't gone into Corden's offstage behaviour but wouldn't affect my enjoyment of the play or opinion on his acting. I pay to see actors, not real people. Anna Maxwell Martin was comfortable with, and good in, her part. To the blithering idiot who allowed his phone to ring on two occasions in the most dramatic moments of the day - hope one day when you need your phone really badly it's out of battery because you wasted it with your irresponsible phone usage.

[avfan]

Thought this was great tonight. Love him or loathe him Corden gives a great performance as does Anna Maxwell Martin. Wish the ending was a tad more climactic bit overall thought It was a really strong piece of writing. 3 great plays this week. I’ve been spoilt:) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

[zephyrus]

What a terrible play. After 20 mins, when I realised where the play was going, I thought, "Oh God, this is going to be tedious." And then it became even more tiresome, and unconvincing, and improbable. At the end, the audience gave it a standing ovation, whilst I thought it was one of the worst pieces of writing I've seen on a major stage in quite some time.

That said, Anna M-M was great and James Corden (who I can't bear) was, to be fair, very good - but I thought, on the whole, this was very disappointing.

[max]

Jul 20, 2024 21:39:19 GMT zephyrus said:

What a terrible play. After 20 mins, when I realised where the play was going, I thought, "Oh God, this is going to be tedious." And then it became even more tiresome, and unconvincing, and improbable. At the end, the audience gave it a standing ovation, whilst I thought it was one of the worst pieces of writing I've seen on a major stage in quite some time.

That said, Anna M-M was great and James Corden (who I can't bear) was, to be fair, very good - but I thought, on the whole, this was very disappointing.

I thought it was a weak play with a very good performance from Corden, and some awkward musical padding at scene changes to try and make it feel more vital than it is.

Slight spoiler, though not plot related:
The set change near the end, where the office has been rearranged around a coffee table rather than a more binary/oppositional situation either side of a desk felt like an interesting shift. The power implications of that weren't really commented on though (or did I drift off?). It comes from quite old and now widely accepted psychology - that taking away glass screens and desks (in places like job centres) lowers tension that used to be provoked by being literally set up on opposite sides.  I did wonder how the MP would subtly reach for a panic button if it was now right down under the coffee table - some humour about good intentions and practicality might have been spun out of that, but without it....

....it just seemed (like the dated/vintage music choices) like a 'today' play written and directed by people with their heads in the late '80s and early '90s.

[sfsusan]

What should I expect at a relaxed performance of this, if I'm in the stall seats on stage? A friend bought tickets for a small group and apparently tomorrow's matinee is a relaxed performance. I understand the house lights are left slightly up, that people can get up, move around, talk, leave, return, etc.

Will this also apply to those in the stage seats? (I'd think that would be very distracting for the actors.) And will having the house lights up make such movement in the audience obvious/distracting for those of us facing the house?

We're still going, of course, but I want to set my expectations (and those of the others, who aren't yet aware of this).

Thanks.

[sfsusan]

Jul 26, 2024 22:31:12 GMT sfsusan said:

What should I expect at a relaxed performance of this, if I'm in the stall seats on stage?

To answer my own question, not much seemed different from a regular performance. In the stall seats you're told you can't re-enter if you leave, and I didn't notice any particularly unusual behavior from the people in the regular stalls.

There is a BSL interpreter on the front right side of the stage, but they quickly fade into the background. Although, sweetly, the cast includes them in the curtain call.