The Common Pursuit

by Simon Gray

begins at Cambridge University, where a group of talented undergraduates decide to start a high-minded literary magazine to be called , in honor of their mentor F.R. Leavis, a famed professor of English. Stuart, the initiator of the project, is to become editor, aided by his inamorata (and future wife) Marigold, while the others will contribute their literary or management skills. The action of the play then moves ahead, in a series of deftly constructed scenes, to follow the fates of the characters over the next twenty years, as the magazine falters and, one by one, they compromise their integrity to the pursuit of success and fall victim to the disillusionment which comes when youthful ideas prove hollow. Their stories encompass sexual torment, adultery, treachery, deceit, success, failure and death, but all told with such dazzling wit and compassionate understanding that, in the end, the play leaves us not only enlightened and entertained but also moved and saddened by the hard choices that life in our time can force upon even the most promising among us.

Genres: Plays, Drama

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008) was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to 5 published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film, and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries

Reviews

[w gall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intelligent people all in a muddle, spinning their wheels; a foul-mouth, two adulterers, and a couple straight shooters.
There are accomplishments by all, mostly literary. But youthful idealism gets left in the dust.

[Schmacko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simon Gray’s play The Common Pursuit depicts a group of Cambridge students intent on starting a literary magazine. At first, they are full of hope and bravado, committed to their high ideals… And then you know exactly where this is going. It takes twenty years to get there, with few surprises on the road to self-delusion and disappointment in the world and others.

It’s not that Gray doesn’t have a sturdy sense of structure. In fact, his problem is too much structure. I was dearly hoping for more surprise. Also, nothing about this is particularly theatrical in the sense of connecting to the live audience, using uniquely theatrical conventions, or delighting. Oh, sure there, a sweet sort of Anglophile itch that can be scratched by the witty repartee. There’s also a comfort in the lack of shock – that sort of comfort is not really why I go to plays.

The characters are pleasant enough, but they are more stereotypes than fully fleshed human beings. They might be relatively interesting for actors to play – especially in figuring out how to fill out what are basically clichéd personalities. They’d definitely be less interesting for me to watch.

It’s not the worst play ever written, but it isn’t the best. It has a sort of solid, predictable architecture that is – from a traditionalist standpoint – impressive. As a piece of living, breathing theater, it just doesn’t have enough fire or creativity to do more than merely distract an audience for a couple hours.

[Karen S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it is EXCELLENT! It is, however, written in British, not in American, and it might not seem to translate well to this side of the pond, except there are always elitists, strivers, cheaters, lovers. Follows the lives of 6 friends (and frienemies?) and several unseen acquaintances over 20 yrs as they grow up (or don't), change (or don't), and make lives (or make others' lives miserable). In their lives, wanting an article to appear in Vogue was NOT universally acclaimed (not even the 10-lb September issue???). Still, I'd really like to see it performed, however unlikely that possibility.

[Janelle V. Dvorak · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to see this on stage.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first college acting role; I played Humphrey. As much as I thought I got it at the time, the story opened up much more over time.