This is a powerful one-woman play. Having it read by Jodie Comer who also played Tessa (the protagonist – an ambitious young barrister) during its London run is a real treat.
Tessa is thriving in the intense world of young barristers in London after a successful run of studying at Cambridge. Tessa is out of step socially with a lot of her peers, and it’s interesting to see her flashbacks to Cambridge and her coming up against her privileged peers for the first time. How does everyone else just seem to immediately share a common language? Over the years she’s learned to roll with it, but her slightly outsider status also affords her a sharp edge and wit in the claustrophobic world of barrister chambers. Her family are proud of her, yet she also feels out of step with them.
Tessa is just starting to make herself a name defending rape cases. She is sleek, successful, and slightly ruthless. She is forging ahead.
What happens when the barrister has to sit on the other side of the law? How to cope when trauma and career collide? Is the law really something you can trust? How to balance reputation with truth?
It’s an intense play, but it also doesn’t unnecessarily“sit in the hurt” either. There’s a lot of honesty and humour, moments of levity. Tessa is a fighter and it’s not trauma porn. At the same time, it’s a brutal indictment of how ineffective legal systems are when it comes to dealing with sexual assault.
Tessa is a complex character who goes through a huge transformation during the narrative. Her intimate narrative sucks you into her world.
One word: gut-wrenching.
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