★★★★★
Suzie Miller’s latest play ‘Prima Facie’ is an original melancholic yet uplifting masterpiece. When Tessa, a newly graduated barrister falls victim to sexual assault, it causes her to re-elevate her moral duties. Prima Facie displays that even the most powerful individuals can have their beliefs shattered. This collaboration between writer Suzie Miller, director Justin Martin and actress Jodie Comer was the group’s first performance at London’s Harold Printer Theatre, and it is a show I truly believe will make history.
Set in a law firm, Tessa has worked her way up from working class origins to be at the top of her game. She defends her clients effortlessly, lighting up any shadows of doubt in cases. However, this came at the cost of abandoning her morals. One of the most defining moments of the play is at the beginning when Tessa talks audiences through her tactics about how she has become an undefeated success. She notes that all good Barristers pay no attention to the victims in court, instead they narrowly focus on their defendant, regardless of the crime they have committed. Whilst Tessa fills her courtrooms with the light of accomplishment, she has blacked out her own morals, meaning when she becomes the victim, audiences are left astonished.
Suzie Miller’s writing is wonderfully different. The performance is equipped with a trigger warning for sexual assault, making you believe the entire 100 minutes are going to be painfully upsetting, but this is not the case. The hardest moments of the play are delivered immediately after a comic scene. For example, we learn of Tessa’s sexual assault after she drunkenly narrates her embarrassment about throwing up in front of the guy she has just slept with. Laughing and smiling, she encourages the audience to chuckle with her. However, it is when your head is tipped back, your mouth is wide open that she hits you with the event. Right at the back of your throat.
Prima Facie is a one woman play, starring Jodie Comer who unflags in her efforts to keep the audience gripped. The chemistry she creates with herself, and the stage is exceptional. She carefully navigates her way around, busying herself with picking up folders, moving tables and even dancing at times, but never loses track of the message she is trying to deliver. You would never know she wasn’t previously theatre trained. If she doesn’t get nominated for an Olivier, I’ll be very surprised.
Set and costume designer, Miriam Buether, has outdone herself. The walls surrounding the stage are decorated with white folders, with around five red ones scattered in. It looks clean, adding to Tessa’s pristine reputation as a Barrister, but once her morals have been shifted and she realises the amount of people who fall victim to sexual assault, these folders are lit up, signifying that underneath a ‘normal’ society lies a heart-breaking truth.
The choice of costume also reveals how society is attempting to bury this serious subject matter. At the beginning of this performance, Tessa details how her mum bought her a cheap fluorescent pink blouse to wear to law school, to give the impression she also belonged. To begin with Tessa laughed at the hideous shirt and covered it with a grey suit. Halfway through, it’s cast to the side of the stage and replaced for a stunning green dress, but Tessa returns to it at the end of the performance, going back to her roots, proud of where she’s come from.
Prima Facie is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Heartbreakingly beautiful, I must warn you to pack tissues if you’re planning to see this show.
Words by Em Whitehouse
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