In Inter Alia, playwright and former lawyer Suzie Miller returns to the legal world she explored in Prima Facie, this time focusing on a woman whose immutable views on sexual assault are tested when the theoretical becomes personal. Following a successful run at the National Theatre, the production arrives in the West End with Rosamund Pike delivering a tour de force performance as Jessica Parks: a Crown Court judge, staunch feminist, and fiercely protective mother to her son, Harry (Cormac McAlinden). A commanding presence both in the courtroom and at home, she holds sway over male barristers, as well as her somewhat jealous, feckless husband (Jamie Glover).
Right from the opening moment the show explodes like a cannon, with Pike rising onto the stage, bewigged in her judge’s silks, surrounded by smoke, heavy metal music blaring, as she delivers a rap-like monologue about a rape case she is adjudicating. Director Justin Martin keeps her in near-constant motion thereafter, as Jessica races through the competing demands of her high-powered job, motherhood and home life. On Miriam Buether’s modern, marvellous set, Pike moves with choreographed efficiency — opening drawers, changing in and out of court dress, and slipping back through time to pivotal moments in her son’s upbringing.
Miller builds the drama through a series of twists and reversals, as Jessica is forced to confront her own moral and legal convictions. Her son, Harry — awkward, vulnerable, and desperate to fit in — is accused of rape by a classmate. As the case unfolds, she and her husband sift through the event’s details, caught between their faith in the law, their instinct to protect their child, and the uncomfortable possibility of his guilt. Pike is a marvel at navigating the many emotional shifts Jessica undergoes, though at times the sheer busyness of the action threatens to overshadow the drama.
The play becomes more grounded after the accusation, as we follow the shifting versions of Harry’s account of the evening in question. With its focus on pornography, rejection and the complexities of sexual consent that shape young male behaviour, the work brings to mind the recent TV series Adolescence. These tensions play out through Jessica herself: anxious and hypervigilant, she repeatedly misjudges how and when to speak to the young Harry about sex — his childhood self neatly represented by a yellow raincoat doll. Later, as she berates her husband for sidestepping those father-son conversations about sex, the play captures the generation gap that surrounds sexual desire, rejection and negotiation for today’s adolescents.
The acting is excellent throughout: Jamie Glover is Jessica’s barrister husband, passed over for judgeship, and unsure of his place in the family hierarchy – supportive yet clearly jealous of his wife’s success. Cormac McAlinden captures the confused, brittle edge of teenage masculinity with real precision. But Pike is the play’s driving force, and an compelling one.
For all the production’s slickness, what lingers most after the curtain comes down is how easily moral judgement and familial love can clash — and how quickly our certainty about our beliefs can slip, especially when it involves those we love.
By: Suzie Miller
Directed by: Justin Martin
Set and Costume Designer: Miriam Buether
Cast: Rosamund Pike, Jamie Glover, Cormac McAlinden
Runs: 1 hour 45 minutes without interval
Until: 20 June
Photo Credit: Manuel Harlan