(Rated 7/5)
Jodie Comer as Tessa in ‘Prima Facie’ is easily the most powerful
performance I have ever seen on stage. That is no exaggeration at all. The play,
written by Suzie Miller and directed by Justin Martin is the story of a defence
barrister who finds herself on the other side in more than one way after she is
sexually assaulted by a colleague defence barrister.
For 100 minutes Jodie is the sole performer who narrates, plays Tessa
and Tessa impersonating a multitude of other key characters using simply alterations
in her physicality and voice. She
seamlessly changes tone and emotion as she hardly pauses for breath through the
highly verbose and lengthy script whilst also changing her clothes, doing her
make-up, turning lights and candles on and off and moving furniture around!! As
we have come to expect of Jodie Comer, she explores her vast emotional range
through her facial expressions and body posture and movement as she uses the
entire stage, furniture and props to demonstrate to us all that is going on in
the play. She takes Tessa from in control, expertly trained barrister witty and
dramatic in her defence of her latest client accused of sexual assault proudly pronouncing
that the legal truth is more important than any so-called actual truth to
defenceless, vulnerable victim, a broken woman trying to win her case with the
actual truth of her assault. For any of us it would be difficult enough to
memorise the entire script but she truly performs it and gets all the business
in too! Absolutely extraordinary!! A True Tour De Force
Prima Facie –
Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2022
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