‘Prima Facie’ evaluate: Good Jodie Comer is a must-see on Broadway

On the play “Prima Facie,” which opened Sunday night time on Broadway, the viewers is hit by two wildly completely different sensations.

First, as we turn into absolutely absorbed by the harrowing story of Tessa, an excellent younger barrister whose life is horribly upended, there may be nice ache and unhappiness in watching her undergo a trauma no one ought to ever should expertise. Some viewers can be understandably overwhelmed by all of it.

Then, at curtain name, as we step exterior of the drama and again into our seats on the John Golden Theatre, pure exhilaration washes over us — as a result of we’ve simply witnessed the emergence of a rare new stage expertise. 

That may be the sensational Jodie Comer, who gained an Emmy Award for taking part in the Russian murderer Villanelle on TV’s “Killing Eve,” and is each bit pretty much as good — nay, even higher — stay and in-person.

“Prima Facie,” which performed London’s West Finish final 12 months, one way or the other marks Comer’s skilled stage debut. In the most effective of circumstances, when a movie or TV star often first treads the boards, they’re lauded for being surprisingly assured and assured — they maintain their very own, and also you’re relieved you’ll be able to truly hear them. 

However Comer goes far past our primary expectations and into the higher echelons of greatness. The 30-year-old actress is remarkably alive with each the nuclear vitality of newness and the sturdy pressure of somebody who’s been at it for many years. 

And “Prima Facie,” the one-woman play by Suzie Miller, is a perfect canvas for Comer’s prodigious expertise. 

Her Tessa is a London lawyer who focuses on sexual-assault instances, and is particularly adept at poking holes — sympathetically, she believes — within the plaintiffs’ fuzzy recollections. She sees herself as a grasp of “the sport of legislation” and bats away solutions that accused males rent her to defend them simply because she’s a lady.

However when she is raped at her house by a colleague who she’s been casually seeing, Tessa finds herself resenting after which opposing the exact same system she has performed an element in propping up.  

The plot, which spans greater than two years, permits us to satisfy a large number of Tessas: the swaggering lawyer in the beginning, the daughter who fights for her working-class mother’s approval, the fun-loving partier and, lastly, the sufferer who battles in opposition to all odds.

Most astonishing all through are Comer’s fast shifts in posture, voice, tempo and physique language that immediately and impactfully reveal Tessa’s mind-set. The actress shoves heavy tables and chairs across the stage in director Justin Martin’s manufacturing, and appears drastically completely different by the tip. I used to be in awe that I’d been within the room with the identical particular person for an uninterrupted 100 minutes. 

Comer turns into many different characters, too — Tessa’s mom, her assailant, associates, professors, policemen — however this isn’t the type of play by which we’re meant to marvel at an actor convincingly enjoying 30 completely different elements like this season’s one-man “A Christmas Carol.” It’s Tessa’s journey that’s gripping, and Comer makes it extra so.  

Miller’s play itself shouldn’t be at all times as sterling because the actress inhabiting it. At occasions, the piece invokes previous tropes and cliches of one-person exhibits and veers into beat poetry territory. 

And a few will discover Tessa’s ultimate direct-address monologue to be extra of an on-message essay than an in-character speech. However once you reframe it as a lawyer delivering her closing remarks, the phrases make sense. Miller’s play works nicely in the long run. 

At my efficiency, Comer took two fast, gracious bows because the viewers stored on clapping. Why milk it? Certainly she is aware of this gained’t be her final standing ovation on Broadway.