The Common Pursuit chronicles the lives of six friends throughout a 20-year span. When Stuart Thorne enlists his fellow Cambridge classmates to help him start a new literary magazine, the literature buffs become lifelong friends. Once the challenges of the real world set in, Stuart must make some unexpected decisions.
What Is the Story of The Common Pursuit?
Set at Cambridge University, The Common Pursuit is the story of Stuart, a student who hopes to start a literary magazine. Stuart appoints himself as the editor and invites his five friends to help: Marigold, his girlfriend; Nick, an aspiring theater critic; Humphry, an aspiring philosophy professor; Martin, an aspiring publisher; and Peter, who aspires to sleep with lots of women. The play spans 20 years, chronicling the lives of these six unlikely friends as their careers and lives progress.
"'The Common Pursuit' can be quite satisfying for American Anglomaniacs, rather like a crisply written summer beach read from across the pond."
The New York Times
Ben Brantley
"['The Common Pursuit' is] ennobled by Gray’s surgical yet compassionate wit and a fine ensemble that includes Jacob Fishel, Tim McGeever, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe and Kieran Campion."
Bloomberg Businessweek
Jeremy Gerard
"[Lucas] Near-Verbrugghe and [Tim] McGeever make the most of the humor—the first clownishly extroverted, like a posh Austin Powers, the second elegantly dry."
New York Post
Elisabeth Vincentelli
