NY Review: 'The Common Pursuit'

The late Simon Grey was such a strong playwright that not even sitcom-level acting and directing can damage his skillfully structured scripts. Case in point: Moises Kaufman’s production of Gray’s 1984 “The Common Pursuit.” Even though Kaufman has overstressed the comedy in this touching and intricate comedy-drama, the audience still contemplates the complex ideas raised and feels for the six lost souls stumbling through life after a bright beginning as ambitious Cambridge undergraduates. Following two British productions, the play had a successful run Off-Broadway in 1986 with a stellar cast including Peter Friedman, Nathan Lane, Dylan Baker, and Michael Countryman. The current production from Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre pales in comparison.   

The first act begins in the 1960s with young Stuart Thorne gathering a disparate group of fellow college intellectuals to launch The Common Pursuit, a cultural magazine of high artistic standards, named for an influential book of essays. There’s his supportive girlfriend Marigold, amiable but limited Martin, brilliantly gifted Humphry, acerbically witty Nick, and the attractive go-getter Peter, nicknamed Captain Marvel for his success with the ladies. As the friends leave school and enter the big, bad world, their lofty goals soon fall victim to the harsh realities of life and the lower levels of the British public’s taste. The idealistic Stuart refuses to compromise his values, either in his personal commitment to Marigold or his professional one to the magazine, and his marriage and career are eventually in ruins. Likewise, the others fail in their academic and personal lives. Even an unseen character who haunts the action -- a famous poet greatly admired by Stuart -- turns out to be a womanizing louse who ends up raving mad and alone in a nursing home. Only the simplistic, hard-working Martin, who never had an unrealistic idea of himself, manages to emerge unscathed.

In the play’s earlier scenes, Kaufman has the company overplay the characters’ quirks, pushing for laughs rather than allowing Gray’s subtle observations to register. By the second act the actors settle down and don’t reach for guffaws, so the audience can discover the gaps between the small circle’s ambitions and on their own.

Jacob Fishel and Lucas Near-Verbrugghe are the worst offenders in the first act, giving “look-at-me” performances, with Fishel overdoing Martin’s awkwardness and Near-Verbrugghe going to town with Nick’s coughing and nastiness. They’re much improved after the intermission, with a deeper limning of Martin’s secret love for Marigold and Nick’s petty jealousy of a rival critic. Tim McGeever totally gets Humphry’s self-deprecation as a failed scholar, but misses his anguished and suppressed homosexual longings for Peter. Kieran Campion is more successful at conveying Peter’s narcissism and his ability to cover up his inadequacies and adulterous behavior with charm. Josh Cooke and Kristen Bush deliver the most balanced work, carefully detailing Stuart and Marigold’s unhappy trek from youthful idealism to mature disillusion.

The atmosphere of intellectual rigor is efficiently conveyed by Derek McLane’s book-stuffed set while Clint Ramos’ decades-spanning costumes and Daniel Kluger’s swinging-London sound design put us in the right time period. If only Kaufman had only toned down the attempts at humor, this would be a less common “Pursuit.”
    
Presented by Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre, 111 W. 46th St., NYC. May 24–July 29. Tue. –Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Sat., and Sun., 2 p.m. (212) 719-1300 or www.roundabouttheatre.org. Casting by Carrie Gardner and Stephen Kopel.