(seen at the afternoon performance on 3rd July 2024)
The monkey was probably the only person underwhelmed by “Prima Facie” in 2022. This new play by Kendall Feaver covers similar ground with, to the monkey mind, immeasurably more success.
We are in the very heart of the traditional university system. Campus split into Oxbridge-style small colleges with 600 years of history – buildings and attitudes to match.
For the management, it is all about reputation. The £250,000 allowance for damages is, after all, a contingency fund, not a suggested target. Which communicates all we need to know.
For the student body, “Wearing What You Were Wearing When the Brothel was Raided” parties and traditional “rugger buggers” rating the new female freshers photographs online before they arrive.
Final year student welfare officer Nikki (Phoebe Campbell) tries to alert College Head Jo Mulligan (Justine Mitchell) to the situation. Told to use her own resources, it is little wonder that this foetid atmosphere leads newcomer Paige Hutson (Liv Hill) to be raped by one of the boys on her first evening at university.
What unfolds is a deeply engrossing expose of generational attitude culture clash, as the fallout from the crime is considered from every possible viewpoint.
From the monkey’s own era, Mulligan’s “Generation X” practical, emotionally detached approach is beautifully sketched and sharply contrasted with Stewart’s “Gen Z” expectation of instant extensive assistance not only practical along guide-lines but also emotionally involved and aware.
The beauty of Feaver’s construct in involving third parties. We have the University’s director Michael (Mathaniel Parker) and scientist wife Leila (Nathalie Armin) to provide the management perspective and cultural bridge respectively.
We also have Nikki and Paige’s peer Ghazali (Gerald) Amir (Liam Lau-Fernandez) to provide narrative commentary on young masculinity, the effects of race and political correctness filtered through acceptable optics rather than to meet actual need.
Later, SPOILER ALERT the accused’s mother Tamara (Susannah Wise) arrives to confront the establishment and raise questions about justice where no formal charge has been laid. SPOILER ENDS.
Vicki Mortimer represents the college with a simple set of benches around a vinyl floored centre, a passerelle surrounding it, allowing Polly Findlay to bring people to the centre, bail out of an awkward conversation or just observe. Passive and static, frantically active; atoms in this test tube of academia, age, gender, race and class.
The cast are more than equal to the occasion. Late replacement Justine Mitchell should keep her script in hand even when she is sure of every scene. The image of frenetic lecturer is given added verisimilitude with a handful of paperwork always present.
So involved in her character that she forgets to turn the pages, one confrontation with student Nikki has herself and Phoebe Campbell giving incandescent performances which will live long in theatrical memory.
The pain and confusion on Liv Hill’s face as she digests her attack are heartbreaking. Her self-awareness and defence of pride astonishingly mature in a very young woman even as events destroy her entire world.
Lau-Fernandez’s questioning of masculine and Muslim values is fascinating, and we wonder just why his friendship with Nikki really broke down.
Pairing Parker and Armin make for a credible marriage. Very much still in love, yet with different values and benign intolerance of foibles, they bring life to strongly written scenes.
Likewise Susannah Wise is accurate in her depiction of a coping with a situation she cannot control, impacting wonderfully on the storyline as it develops.
Rising above simple “he / she said” debate, we know that the rape took place, that it happened partly as a result of a toxic atmosphere created by the expectations of an older generation clashing with the realities of a younger one. Responsibilities have been replaced by rights, yet those rights – which previous generations fought hard for – are being eroded and are nothing without responsibilities.
The blend is perfection. Feaver raises questions and allows us to explore ideas we may not have considered, in a searing commentary on current times.
5 stars. Standing ovation given.
Photo credits: Marc Brenner (main image and bottom right), Ali Wright (top right). Used by kind permission of the Almeida Theatre.