Inter Alia Review (National Theatre (Lyttleton Theatre), London)

17 July 2025 I 19:30 I National Theatre (Lyttleton Theatre), London

⭐⭐⭐

Inter Alia, the new play written by Suzie Miller, debuts at the National Theatre this summer. This is led by the creative team behind Prima Facie, the law-changing sister production that tackles women's injustice in a court of law. Conversely, Inter Alia is a legal drama on the pressures of modern parenting amidst toxic masculinity and a teenage son's online susceptibility. Thematically reminiscent of Netflix's Adolescence, a topical, hard-hitting play is overly ambitious, neither as poignant or affecting as its predecessor.

From the instant that Inter Alia was announced, it was inevitable that audiences would draw comparisons with Prima Facie. To begin positively, both share a blindingly impressive actress at the helm, with Rosamund Pike pursuing one of theatre's most relentless and challenging roles. Where other performers support, her emotional commitment and heavily studied character allow a near 100-minute monologue to lift from the page with such vocal sincerity. Pike's complex understanding of Jess' circumstances produce a highly compelling conflict between her judicial and mother's instinct.

Miller's script periodically loses its rhythm due to an overly descriptive and observative tone. Jess will recount a discussion, as Pike jumps across the stage in varying accents and physicalities to multi-roll segments of her memory. Additionally with the mystical side-wardrobe opening to unusually embody Jess' associate, Justin Martin's direction asks us to make-believe rather than focusing on who/what is present onstage. Despite immense talents of stamina, these efforts are visually exhaustive, weakening Pike's potential.

On the topic of magical furniture, Miriam Buether's design is excessive for an intimate family tragedy. Where Prima Facie's set is static, Buether has envisioned a theatrical and hyper-realist living room, with an upstage sinister wooded area symbolic of Jess' maternal anxieties. Occasionally, this allowance for surreal sequences is essential in unlocking the subconscious. Though in the case of confetti streamers heaping onto the audience in Pike's rendition of Tina Turner's The Best, Inter Alia often feels lost in the unnecessary.

Jasper Talbot's depiction of 18-year-old son Harry progresses through the conventional sulky teenager, imbued with earlier comic moments. When later accused of rape by a classmate, the development is too obvious to deliver the gut-punch it requires. But as we see Harry grow up from a (strangely adorable) bodiless yellow coat, and later a child, a young cast really aids audiences in visualising the vulnerability of children today, and the malicious power of the internet.

The meatier content comes from Jamie Glover's Michael, Jess' doting husband. As Harry is led astray by the misogynist manosphere, his ignorance and generational passivity is devastatingly delivered. His blind panic to rescue his son results in a successfully flawed character, where the parental dynamic of responsibility produces the show's strongest scenes by a mile.

Inter Alia is thus a production of two halves. The return of the Miller-Martin stage partnership is suggestive that lightning doesn't always strike twice. In a relevant and evocative vision, everything is emotionally left onstage in top-notch performances. With a heap of ideas, including video screens and live music which I neglect to mention, the play must creatively reign itself in to find the gold, which is most definitely there.