The Stage

The Common Pursuit

Published Wednesday 28 May 2008 at 14:55 by Alistair Smith

It took me a little while to work out why the Menier had decided to revive The Common Pursuit - Simon Gray’s 25-year-old play charting the trials and tribulations of a group of friends as they progress from youthful idealism into wistful middle age.

The first half of the piece is pleasant enough, if slightly pedestrian, and despite some fine performances, feels rather old-fashioned in both its pace and its distinctly high-brow, almost elitist, tone.

It is post-interval, though, when the characters grow into themselves - and indeed, the actors into their parts - as Gray’s play explores the loss of the ideals which the group first had when they launched a distinctly intellectual literary magazine (The Common Pursuit) while undergraduates at Cambridge.

It is a mark of both the quality of Gray’s writing and the performances that what could have descended into melodrama in the second half retains its reserve and creates a real poignancy, as one realises how much of the friends’ lives have been wasted.

This is, in large part, thanks to the superb James Dreyfus as Humphry, the world-weary and sharp-tongued homosexual who buries his desire for Nigel Harman’s dashing (and straight) Peter and provides the unexpected emotional centre of the piece.

Undoubtedly, the play (like its characters) feels like it has aged - numerous literary and topical reference will be lost on much of the audience - and at times the action, of which there isn’t a huge amount, suffers longeurs. However, in the end it provides a gently enjoyable - and at times truly moving - experience.