This week, Cardiff’s own New Theatre housed National Theatre’s fiery production of Prima Facie, a burning hot one-woman play starring Jodie Comer.
Suzie Miller, Australian-British playwright, has become a staple in 21st-century British political drama as the National Theatre took on Prima Facie in 2022 and her hit play Inter Alia (2025) starring Rosamund Pike. Drawing on her own experiences as a lawyer, Suzie Miller is revitalising cultural conversations surrounding modern tragedy, sexual assault, and Britain’s justice system.
The problem of the play develops when Tessa, outstanding London defence barrister, is sexually assaulted herself. This trauma upends her belief in and defence of the British legal system, causing her to re-evaluate its ethics and efficacy as the play progresses.
The first act of Prima Facie develops Tessa’s character as a selfstarter: shedding her working-class Liverpudlian origins and earning a Cambridge law degree, only to find herself surrounded by overconfident public school colleagues who don’t quite—and don’t attempt to—understand her.
Crucial in act one is the power trip experienced by Tessa as she wins in court. Blissfully ignoring her immoral defence of sexual predators and abusers, Tessa experiences euphoric highs in her assertion of her intellectual capabilities against other male lawyers and witnesses who doubt her.
As an audience, we experience her comedown: one which destabilises her identity and personal morality.
As Tessa herself becomes subject to this system, Suzie Miller examines its legal processes—sexual assault forensic examinations, police interrogations and, worst of all, the trial.
The painful irony of Tessa’s shift in position is not subtle—she becomes the victim of her own tactical questioning and cross-analysis in court. Prima Facie leaves audiences with a nostalgic yearn for youthful innocence: revoked from Tessa in her rape and from us in the play’s realism.
She becomes the victim of her own tactical questioning and cross-analysis in court
Most poigant of all is the mirroring of Cambridge graduation success rates to sexual assault rates: “Look to your left. Look to your right. It’s one of us.”
Prima Facie, as a play, would easily fall flat without a passionate and mature female actor: a bill which Jodie Comer most certainly fits.
She displays her craft with incredible vitality, performing dynamic sequences of dense, wordy storytelling with ease and clarity. Additionally, in a role which requires constant shifting of accents— not only mimicking other characters but mirroring Tessa’s shifting Liverpudlian dialect to her new accent of the legal elites—she perseveres. With almost two hours of constant dialogue, Prima Facie is undoubtedly one of the most demanding theatre scripts of the 21st century.
Jodie Comer steps into this role with emotional grit and prowess.
While Jodie acts alone on stage, shifting furniture and progressing the plot on her own, the National Theatre’s set design also contributes to the punch of this play. From powerful on-stage rainfall to neon lights, the most notable set in this production must be the legal skyscrapers—endless folders documenting court cases, each one representing another woman disappointed by their justice system.
As the play comes to a close, each book which has sat unnoticed on the shelving is brightly lit, a potent symbol which wordlessly encapsulates the moral underpinning of Suzie Miller’s modern tragedy. Prima Facie is a must watch for student audiences interested in politics and modern institutional misogyny, and following the tour will be available to stream on National Theatre Home.