“Jessica Parks (Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike; Gone Girl, Saltburn) is the kind of multi-skilled woman you just know the legal system needs more of. She brings humanity and compassion to her courtroom, employing her soft skills to protect vulnerable witnesses while cutting down cocky male counsel with a tone that can “cut through tendons and bone”. But she’s not just a crown court judge, she’s also an expert juggler, in the way that high-achieving women so often need to be. Her career exists “inter alia” – as playwright Suzie Miller puts it, in the cracks of everyone else’s lives.
All the hallmarks of Justin Martin’s pulsating direction are here, from the onstage guitar and drums ratcheting up the tension to Pike’s physical, occasionally anarchic performance. She is in constant motion, wearing many different outfits – karaoke queen, sexy wife, Marigold-clad dishwasher and laundrywoman – and Miriam Buether’s set combines with Natasha Chivers’ lighting to capture the dissolution of boundaries between the courtroom and home.
This is not a solo show: Jamie Glover provides the marital tension as Jessica’s husband Michael, who has been beaten by his wife to both KC and the bench. Harry, their 18-year-old son, mooches about almost silently, alternating, in Jasper Talbot’s portrayal, between sensitive, sulky and comically drunk. But what begin as peripheral figures – to be organised, loved and cared for – are given vital voices of their own as the narrative progresses. Jessica remains the moral and emotional centre: her tragedy unfolds like that of an Ibsen protagonist failed by those around them. As a mother she has done the best she can, both to shield her child from bullies and to raise him true to her feminist beliefs (there’s a very funny scene where they have the porn talk). But she can’t protect him from social media, or peer pressure or, in the end, himself.” -Emma John, The Guardian
Through a partnership with OKC Repertory Theater, OKC Rep Members receive discounted admission to National Theatre Live screenings at OKCMOA.
Visit the box office for tickets, and learn more about OKC Rep at: https://www.okcrep.org/
