Jodie Comer’s award-winning performance of the play has led to a sold out UK tour, following a West-End and Broadway run.
Trigger Warning: Discussions of Rape and Sexual Assault
Jodie Comer’s performance of Prima Facie by Suzie Miller manages to balance the heavy subject matter of sexual assault and the criminal justice system with comedy, sorrow and apathy, and makes for an amazing night of theatre. Throughout the performance, Comer captivates the audience, making you hang on to every word, coupled with a carefully choreographed stage presence.
Prima Facie follows the story of strong and driven Tessa (Jodie Comer), who navigates the legal world as a successful defence barrister at the peak of her career, specialising in sexual assault cases. Throughout the first half of the play, we follow Tessa as she narrates her professional and personal life, alternating between accounts of the past and present. The act culminates in Tessa’s harrowing account of her rape by a fellow barrister, and her realisation about what is happening to her and what she has to do to bring her perpetrator to justice.
The end of the first act is marked by an on-stage rainstorm, while a countdown shows the days passing since the assault. The second half then opens with Tessa’s character getting ready for court and going to trial 1116 days after the event, flipping between the weeks following the assault and the present.
The play is currently on a sold-out tour of the UK, having first played in Australia in 2019 and led by Sheridan Harbridgeon, followed by a West End and Broadway run in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Throughout the performance, the audience at the Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh was captivated but tense, as Comer stayed on stage for the entire one-hour, forty-five-minute production, except for a few minutes during the change of acts following the on-stage storm. Having seen the production during the 2022 National Theatre Live broadcast in my local cinema, seeing the production in person was a markedly different experience.
The audience was made up of predominantly female viewers, which made the final scenes, where Tessa highlights how “one in three women. Look to your left, look to your right, one of us” will experience sexual assault in their life, and how unjust the legal system is for survivors of sexual and domestic violence, even more poignant.
One of my favourite aspects of Prima Facie is the text’s accessibility. Before discovering the play, I always thought of plays as dense pieces of theatre with often confusing language, but while the subject matter is far from light, Comer’s performance, combined with Miller’s writing, provides an accessible and strong piece of theatre.
Overall, Comer’s performance of Prima Facie is able to execute a balanced and emotive performance; keeping the audience engaged throughout to bring light to injustice through theatre.
Image Credit: Prima Facie Play
