INTER ALIA

Last Updated on April 8, 2026

I Fought The Law, But The Law Won

4.5 out of 5.0 stars

After its successful run at the Lyttleton, National Theatre, Olivier Award-winning writer Suzie Miller’s legal drama Inter Alia is back for a new run, this time at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End and with Rosamund Pike reprising her role as London Crown Court Judge Jessica Parks. Miller made a huge splash on the London and international theatre scene with her one-woman ‘monodrama’ Prima Facie, starring Jodie Comer as a defence lawyer who is a victim of sexual assault. Inter Alia addresses some of the same issues, but this time from a judge’s perspective. The play’s title is taken from the legal Latin term ‘inter alia’, which means ‘among other things’. This is Miller’s take on how women have to segment their lives, playing many roles but always fitting into the needs and demands of others rather than maintaining full autonomy.

Director Justin Martin also worked on Prima Facie and Inter Alia is a companion piece to the Jodie Comer vehicle. Both plays feature a throbbing heartbeat underscore created by sound designers Ben and Max Ringham. The play opens as if we are at a gig, Pike emerges from under the stage, doused in dry ice, gripping a mike stand and striking her best Freddie Mercury poses. This is a virtuosic rock star turn by Rosamund Pike, who is a high-energy kinetic whirlwind of movement, personal reflection and legal analysis. Torn between her feminist ideals and maternal instincts, Pike stretches out her long limbs as she tries to encompass her multiple roles: as arbiter of the law, friend, mother, wife and lover. It’s an astonishing and probably prize-winning performance with the actress carrying 80 per cent of the script, as she plays her friends and colleagues alongside her internal monologue.

The character of Judge Jessica Parks sees herself as a legal trailblazer, holding back aggressive male prosecution barristers, using her ‘soft skills’ to protect female witnesses and making sure that male violence is punished. She is also juggling maternal guilt, ‘You’re always late, mum’, and managing the shallow ego of her barrister husband, ‘I feel guilty for being successful’. In a flashback scene, we see her at a park where she loses her toddler, Harry, whilst on a work Facetime call. She muses, ‘When did I become the primary carer?’

Jamie Glover is very credible as barrister husband Michael Wheatley, a man comfortable in the boy’s club that makes up much of the legal profession. He struggles to communicate with his son on a meaningful level beyond football and rock music and holds the generational guilt of a world in which a woman saying ‘no’ was regarded as a challenge rather than an instruction.

 Cormac McAlinden gives a nuanced performance as the sullen teenage son, Harry, half man, half little boy; not one of the ‘cool’ kids at school, he is desperate for acceptance by his peers and is drawn into the toxic manosphere with tragic consequences. But the two male parts are there to foreground Pike’s performance. It’s a bit like the 70s new wave group The Jam. Paul Weller was always the centre of attention, with bassist and drummer Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler doing a fine job making up the numbers.

 There has been some criticism of Inter Alia, suggesting that the play is just Prima Facie with a tweaked storyline and an upper-middle-class lead. Within the legal chattering classes, there has also been comment on why Miller feels the need to punish her successful women for being just that. However, there is no doubt that Miller is writing fantastic leading roles for women and creating vital dramas that are energising the London stage.

The issues presented in Inter Alia are complex and intertwined. How do we address the emergence of the toxic ‘manosphere’? How do we unpick the complexities of gender politics? If Inter Alia doesn’t provide the answers, the play certainly gives us a great night of theatre considering them.

INTER ALIA
Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DA

from 19 March to 20 June 2026

For more West End Theatre, check our previews