“The dialogue is sharp, the insights are incisive and the tempo keeps you engaged. It allows Miller to get away with bringing feelings and inner thoughts to the surface.”
Con Nats
4 Karoke songs
Sydney playwright Suzie Miller returns to familiar ground with Inter Alia, a follow-up to her international success, Prima Facie. This time we are taken through the perspective of a female judge.
Jessica Parks (Rosalinda Pike) is a lithe and lively mother of one boy, who has outshone her defence lawyer husband, Matt (Jamie Glover) to become a judge. She wants to bring more respect to defendants inside her court, particularly rape victims. Life is a juggle of ironing shirts, shopping, cooking and court hearings. She is constantly worried about her awkward and bullied son, Harry (Jasper Talbot). She wants him to grow into a respectful lad (and the awkward chat about porn to her 12-year old son is a very funny scene, apparently based in truth.)
The first hour of the play is this mix of wit and whimsy and how hard it is to find time to catch up with her girl friends and go hard at karaoke. Then something happens which turns their family lives upside down.
It is hard to discuss the serious issues raised in this play without a spoiler, so feel free to skip to the end.
While Prima Facie looked at the vagaries of the court system and the horrendous way rape victims are treated, Inter Alia switches to the view of the judge. It asks: “How would you, as a mother and woman, react if the accused was your son?” It’s a fascinating conundrum as was the Q&A with Suzie Miller.
Miller stated she wanted to set the issue within a middle class family to make people think it could happen to them and she had done extensive research by talking to many female judges. She also wanted to explore how mothers lose touch with their sons during teenage hood and how the lack of ‘uncomfortable chats’ by men can lead to young men being brought up by the internet and porn sites, leading to casual misogyny. It’s a big topic which Miller tries to answer, and is worthy of deeper discussion. By setting this story in a middle class legal family, I’m not sure the answers can be found there.
Inter Alia features all the hallmarks of the previous collaboration between Miller and director Justin Martin. It has all the zip and table-topping energy of Prima Facie, and I love the pace of their productions. The dialogue is sharp, the insights are incisive and the tempo keeps you engaged. It allows Miller to get away with bringing feelings and inner thoughts to the surface. Sometimes these overt feelings can lead to melodramatic moments, where moments are overplayed.
Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn) is brilliant as Jessica. Her energy is amazing, constantly talking through chores and clothing changes, and one hundred and five minutes without a break for intermission, and without dropping any lines, is an epic effort. Pike brings the confidence and vulnerability out with equal measure and makes us realise even judges are human. Glover as husband Matt and Talbot as Harry also hit their marks and are excellent in support. Director Justin Martin has decided up the ante with children, guitars and lighting effects, although the drop into melodrama could have been avoided. (It’s hard to claim that men lack emotion, then feature them crying.) And the ending is quite powerful.
We also discovered that Prima Facie is now part of training for judges and police who handle rape cases in the UK. It’s great to see artists filling the holes that authorities don’t care to fill, especially on topics as important as these.
4 Karaoke songs
Con Nats, On The Screen
