Having exploited his cheeky chappie, Jim the Lad persona as far as possible in the US, James Corden returns to the British stage for the first time since his breakout hit, One Man, Two Guvnors. In Joe Penhall’s well-timed play he plays Alec, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan and now installs security systems because he wanted “a boring, ordinary job.”
His latest installation is in the constituency office of backbench MP Monica (Anna Maxwell Martin) who lends a sympathetic ear to his unrestrained chatter. It is clear from the start that Alec has problems and when he reveals that he is in the middle of a divorce, has made threats to his wife and is on anti-psychotic medication alarm bells start ringing, albeit metaphorically. He wants more from Monica than she can give in her position and his frustration boils over into anger and potential danger.
The arrival of Protection Officer DC Mellor (Zachary Hart), who offers crass advice to Monica to wear a stab-proof vest and learn ju-jitsu, does little to quell her anxiety. Penhall interrogates the conflict of paranoia/empathy and increasing dangers faced by MPs as the two joust with each other over the perceived diminishing rights of men in a society that seems less concerned with people like him in favour of the very real threats to women. On a simple traverse stage with audience seated behind the acting area as well as in the auditorium, the drama is played out in short scenes interspersed by rather too lengthy blackouts.
Director Matthew Warchus keeps a tight focus on all three actors as they negotiate the tricky path that Penhall has laid out for them, though Mellor skirts the borders of thicko cop too often for comfort.
Corden is outstanding, however, and the manic energy that turbo charged the comedy of One Man is here repurposed in a more dramatic context.
You can feel his anger simmering even in some of the more comic interchanges, and Maxwell Martin responds with the cool wariness of someone who wants to do the right thing for a man who behaves like a human IED.
“Every man I know has suffered violence and abuse,” wails Alec towards the end. Corden ensures that the controversial cri de coeur is justified.