Cultural Dessert

'Prima Facie' by Suzi Miller

12 August 2022

On Tuesday we were at the Curzon Cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery to see the NT Live screening of 'Prima Facie' by Suzi Miller from the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. This new play is presented as a partnership with the charity The Schools Consent Project which was set up in 2014 by barrister Kate Parker to send lawyers into schools to teach 11-18 year olds the legal definition of consent and key sexual offences. 'Prima Facie' looks at the issue of consent through the story of Tessa Ensler, a young barrister who has made a name for herself defending men accused of sexual assault. It's a remarkable one-woman play which marks Jodie Comer's West End debut. Justin Martin's production uses an inventive set by Miriam Buether framed with towering bookshelves filled with legal ring binders, and features music by Rebecca Lucy Taylor AKA Self Esteem. Suzi Miller's script is powerful, witty and cleverly constructed. But this is very much Jodie Comer's show and she is superb. Like many monologues, the script would make a good radio play. But Jodie Comer's physical acting is fascinating, constantly moving the furniture to construct different scenes in her story, leaping onto the desk to deliver a speech and pouring a full glass of water perfectly without looking. And her facial expressions, wonderfully clear in close-up in the cinema screening, tell much of the story by themselves. She has an incredible skill for accents (as she demonstrated in 'Killing Eve'), here seamlessly switching between two characters when recounting a conversation. It's a captivating, compelling masterclass in dramatic storytelling which reminded me of Kizzy Dunn’s brilliant one-woman performance of ‘Henry V’ that we saw at the Edinburgh Fringe four years ago (reviewed here in August 2018). 'Prima Facie' is an amazing show - funny, distressing and enraging: an extraordinary solo performance by Jodie Comer.

Labels: Drama, Film, Theatre

posted by Robin Simpson @ 11:54 am