PRIMA FACIE/ NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: PRIMA FACIE

UK, 2022, 120 minutes, Colour.

Jodie Comer.

Directed by Justin Martin.

A welcome addition to screen versions of performances from the British National Theatre. A stage experience is captured. Worldwide audiences have an opportunity to experience something of the world of international theatre.

There have been many one-woman, one-man performances causing admiration in audiences that one performer could convey so much drama, so many characters, bring to life a play with such skill. Amongst the top one-performer plays, Jodie Comer as Tessa, a British lawyer, has to be one of the best.

Jodie Comer, came to audience attention on television series, Killing Eve. She also appeared in several films, stealing the show as a Midwestern wife of bikies in the 1960s in The Bikerider.

At the beginning of Prima Facie, written by Australian lawyer and television presenter, Suzie Miller,  is  shefull of energy, assurance, speaks exceedingly quickly, is on the move around the stage, moving furniture, changing clothes, telling a narrative, vivid in her descriptions of what is taking place, and vivid in her voices and intonations to indicate a variety of characters and their interactions. It is a tour-de-force, emphasis on the force.

In the second half, Tessa turns down somewhat, she is the victim of a sexual assault by a colleague, makes the decision to bring the case to court, inviting the audience to share her experiences, confiding in the audience, describing what is happening, the accused’s defence using some of the tough tactics she had used in the first half of the play.

In many ways, this is an exhausting experience for the audience – who is in vast admiration for the versatile, exhausting performance by Jodie Comer