Jodie’s cracking, but it’s a sermon, not a play

Prima Facie

Harold Pinter Theatre, London

Until June 18,

1hr 40 mins

If you watched Netflix’s lurid Anatomy Of A Scandal you might have got the impression that all MPs are rapists. There’s now more sexual assault on offer in this exhausting onewoman show, starring Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer (left) as a barrister. A cracking stage debut for her; shame about the play.

Comer plays a Liverpudlian, working-class criminal defence barrister. She is natty, sharp and expert at getting men off sexual assault charges, using all sorts of cunning ploys to woo the jury or clobber a witness.

From her capacious office, lined with case files, she ushers us into an imaginary courtroom and shows us the adrenalin rush of being in full legal combat.

Things turn nasty for her, though, on a very drunken night out.

She goes home and ends up hugging the loo seat.

She goes back to bed with her one-night stand, a barrister colleague, worried about her vomit breath and dying for some kip.

Then, in graphic detail, we hear how he rapes her. It’s horrifying.

I wouldn’t want in any way to ignore the seriousness of rape. But as a court case it feels a tad unlikely. Disclosure: my wife is a criminal barrister who does a lot of sexualassault cases. Never has she heard of, let alone represented, a barrister accused of assaulting a colleague.

Not that it can’t happen, but in this case there’s a pong of theatrical contrivance.

Suddenly, Comer stops being a ruthless legal eagle and becomes a huddled victim who just wants her mum. From then on, Suzie Miller’s monologue starts to spiral the plug hole.

Our heroine stops being a character in the play and becomes a righteous mouthpiece for all women who have been attacked and denied justice. You can’t help but be moved by her argument, but the monologue becomes as dead as a parrot. You’re getting an editorial, not a play.

Comer fans won’t be disappointed, however. She is completely fearless on stage, she never slips up, and there’s even a hint of Villanelle about her coolness.

I’d say her performance is a bit over-egged.

But of the charge of failing to make an impression she is definitely not guilty.