The House | “A case study in what the stage does best”: Baroness Chakrabarti reviews ‘Inter Alia’

Cormac McAlinden as Harry and Rosamund Pike as Jessica | Photo (c): Manuel Harlan

3 min read1 hr

Light and humorous moments aside, Australian lawyer-turned-writer Suzie Miller’s Inter Alia (“among other things”) is a very serious play. As with Miller’s 2019 stage work Prima Facie, a legal professional woman protagonist becomes the device for exploring wider, urgent societal issues. In the earlier work, it was a criminal defence barrister whose worldview is rocked by her own rape. That piece garnered international plaudits for both Miller and the phenomenon that is Jodie Comer in the starring role in the UK.

This time, the equally glittering and formidable Rosamund Pike plays Jessica Parks, a Crown Court judge and unabashed feminist who has sent many a sex offender to the slammer. Her work-life balance is non-existent, or at least impossibly demanding, thanks to the oblivious entitlement or passive-aggressive resentment of her hapless, less obviously successful criminal silk husband Michael. He is portrayed with understated aplomb by Jamie Glover. Jess’ life of juggling plates, cases, family duties and domestic dinner parties is sent into shock after an incident involving her only child, 18-year-old Harry. In this West End Wyndham’s Theatre transfer from the National Theatre, the darling boy is played with sensitivity and flair by Cormac McAlinden.

Pike delivers what we expect of a cinema star returning to the stage after many years. She commands the space, audience and material in a performance which combines physical energy and dexterity with charisma, empathy and warmth. Would any politicians reading this please take note? Pike’s own discipline and stamina in essentially carrying the one hour and 45 minutes, without interval and at a rate of knots, is well worthy of her character. Crucially, she is completely believable as an obviously class-privileged senior woman who has given her life to public service, towards the less glamorous end of our very precious and much-maligned UK judiciary. I have met and admired a great many Jesses over the years. Some are lawyers and judges, but others are senior doctors, journalists and, dare I say it, even parliamentarians.

Rosamond Pike delivers what we expect of a cinema star returning to the stage after many years

While the energy and pace are impressive, and at times almost mesmerising, there were moments when I did not need quite so much rock guitar and well-choreographed but dizzying actor-driven prop movement, as clothes and dishes are disposed into the well-placed magic doors and cupboards, worthy of legendary National set-design.

Ultimately, however, while the screen is – for me at least – unrivalled as the medium for transcending worlds and developing three-dimensional characters, this production is a case study in what the stage does better or even best. That is providing challenge. While many of us applauded Adolescence, and welcomed all its well-deserved accolades, the parents in the last episode of that Netflix drama let themselves too very easily off the hook. This piece does the opposite.

I loved it, of course, for humanising lawyers and judges, who are fast becoming a demonised minority, but mostly for doing so with critical honesty, integrity and intelligence. Readers might expect this review of me, but I challenge anyone not to be enthralled and provoked.

Baroness Chakrabarti is a Labour peer

Inter Alia

Written by: Suzie Miller

Directed by: Justin Martin

Venue: Wyndham’s Theatre, WC2 – until 20 June