Prima Facie

In this bracing if somewhat stilted debut, playwright Miller adapts her Olivier-winning play about London criminal defense barrister Tessa Ensler, whose fierce faith in the law is challenged after she’s raped by a colleague. Though Tessa prides herself on being a champion for underdogs like her older brother, Johnny—whose juvenile run-ins with the justice system have tainted his professional prospects—she has surprisingly few qualms about defending men accused of sexual assault. Her favored tactic in these cases is superficially sympathetic but ultimately devastating cross-examinations of her client’s female accusers. One night, after a bout of heavy drinking, Tessa is assaulted by a colleague with whom she’s been carrying on an affair. As she wrestles with the same conundrums faced by the women she’s eviscerated on the stand, the novel hits its stride on the way to a climactic courtroom showdown. Miller’s narrative more than succeeds as an impassioned piece of advocacy that illuminates the tilted playing field facing sexual assault survivors. Without the immediacy of the stage, however, it can sometimes feel less like a novel than a brilliantly argued legal brief. Miller provides plenty of food for thought, but she doesn’t quite nail the transition from stage to page. (Jan.)