Inter Alia, Lyttelton Theatre, review – ‘Rosamund Pike triumphs with a quick-silver performance’ ★★★

However, it is Jessica’s perspective of the world that the play exists to portray and it is through her that we see the judiciary is male dominated, and how sexual assault trials are tilted against the victims, especially when a male defence discredits female accusers and witnesses. Rape myths – scantily clad victims, etc – are not tolerated in Jessica’s court.

All this injustice Jessica does her best to correct – or at least improve. She is also doing the cooking for tonight’s dinner party, buying the wine and washing and ironing Harry’s Hawaiian shirt ahead of his night out. Michael has bought the cheese (he had it delivered).

It is here that Miller’s play feels rather hackneyed even before it properly gets going. It is a slightly tricky thing for a male reviewer to question the way a female, feminist character is drawn by a female writer. I see that. But defining a high-flying character chiefly by the domestic and professional juggling she has to do because the men in her life are essentially unreconstructed chauvinists is, dramatically speaking, a bit of cliché.

Rosamund Pike in Inter Alia Manuel Harlan

Still, the play exerts a steadily tightening grip when Jessica’s professional and private principles are threatened by an accusation levelled at the son on whom she dotes. Her love life has been infiltrated by images her mind fails to erase from a rape case she recently tried. Now her roles as judge and mother have been riven by Harry being accused of the crime.

Pike superbly embodies the impossible dilemma of being both a mother of an accused and a judge committed to protecting the victims of sexual violence. The shock of never quite knowing the child you dote on is also powerfully conveyed.

The evening is tense, lively and witty; the missteps of parenthood well-observed and true. But a better-balanced marriage might have made the play feel more now and its attack on toxic masculinity more telling.