National Theatre Live: Prima Facie

Tessa is a young and successful criminal barrister. She comes from a working class background, studied on a scholarship and now works in defence. Her field is sexual assault; she defends her clients and in cross examination finds the inconsistencies in what the complainant says. She sees it as technical work; this is how the law functions and Tessa believes in the rules. Then something happens to her. Now she is the one in the witness box and the barrister opposite uses the same method. Every rule she knows works against her this time. Justin Martin directs. Jodie Comer is alone on stage. The source is Suzie Miller's play. It was recorded from the theatre for National Theatre Live and shown in cinemas. The play is for one performer; Comer plays every character herself and stands alone on stage for around a hundred minutes. Suzie Miller worked as a lawyer before writing it, and the legal ground of the text comes from there. Comer won an Olivier award for the part; after London the play moved to Broadway. The matter it treats is the mismatch between the law's idea of evidence and how trauma works; the text states this openly as an argument. The staging is plain and light and water work inside it. Its limit is form; this is a recording of a theatre performance and it would be wrong to look for a language of cinema. Who it is for: viewers who like recorded theatre and work centred on performance. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the form is bound to the stage, and the last section addresses the audience directly.