Inter Alia,
Lyttelton, National Theatre, London
Has lightning struck twice? Rosamund Pike was sensational on Wednesday night as a High Court judge in a new play at the National Theatre by Australian writer Suzie Miller – the woman who wrote that other hit play about the law, Prima Facie, starring a similarly sensational Jodie Comer in 2022.
Intriguingly, Inter Alia is a mirror image of Prima Facie. Where Comer was Tessa Ensler, a have-it-all barrister defending rape suspects, Pike is Jessica Wheatley, a High Court judge trying and sentencing the same.
Both plays have Latin titles and run for 100 minutes without an interval.
Both are directed by Justin Martin and designed by Miriam Buether. And both turn the tables on their heroines to create devastating moral dilemmas.
The difference is that, unlike Prima Facie, Inter Alia isn’t entirely a monologue.
We first encounter Pike as a clever, light-touch judge, feminising an alpha-male profession with her ‘soft skills’.
Rosamund Pike (pictured) is sensational as a High Court judge in a new play Inter Alia at the Lyttelton, National Theatre, London
Then we discover her at home as a crusading super-mum: marinating veg, sorting laundry and doing the ironing – all before heading back to court and ‘the manosphere’.
Pike’s Jessica is a force of nature, going out on karaoke nights with girlfriend barristers. But like every good middle-class mother she’s also riven with guilt about not being good enough.
And although her supportive husband Michael (Jamie Glover) is a sensitive yet adventurous lover, the god of her idolatry is her son Harry (Jasper Talbot).
And it’s because of Harry that her seemingly perfect life falls apart, despite best-practice parenting, including warning him about social media and online porn.
It’s reminiscent of Netflix’s smash hit Adolescence, so no prizes for guessing why the wheels come off Jessica’s dream. The fact that we can see it coming a mile off simply adds to the sense of dread in Martin’s helter-skelter production.
The only thing that rankled with me is the play’s presumption that we are enchanted by Jessica’s middle-class values and ‘parenting style’.
The work is by the same Australian writer, Suzie Miller, who created the award winning Prima Facie starring Jodie Comer (pictured)
Even so, Inter Alia – whose title means ‘among other things’ – plays out like a Greek tragedy.
Both the male characters are reduced to benign stereotypes. Michael is a basically good, if corner-cutting husband. And Harry is a basically good, if desperate-to-fit-in son.
But Pike… she blazes alone: multitasking in the kitchen and in her judge’s chambers, walking a mental tightrope and talking us through her 360-degree collapse.
Increasingly uncomfortable to watch, just like Prima Facie it will keep the chattering classes chattering long into the night.
