Inter Alia: Rosamund Pike is 'electric' in gut-wrenching legal drama

Suzie Miller is the Australian lawyer-turned-playwright whose one-woman play "Prima Facie" – about the failings of the criminal justice system, and featuring a "tour de force" performance from Jodie Comer – was a massive hit in London and New York, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph.

Miller's follow-up, "Inter Alia", has similar themes, but whereas the earlier work was about a top-flight defence barrister who experiences the legal system from the other side after she is sexually assaulted, "Inter Alia" is about a high-powered feminist judge, Jessica, whose 18-year-old son Harry is accused of rape. It's a gripping and gut-wrenching piece, even if it feels a bit "sketchier" and more didactic than its predecessor.

This is a "banger" of a play that sent a chill down my spine, said Robert Gore-Langton in The Mail on Sunday. Rosamund Pike, in her first theatrical role for 15 years, is "electric" as the judge. On stage throughout, she "communicates courage, comedy, principled conviction and a tsunami of middle-class angst".

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The first scenes show Jessica juggling her life as a judge with motherhood and a busy social life. All this showcases Pike's range, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out, but it is when the rape storyline emerges that the drama really gets going. Miller is interested in why rape convictions are so rare, and to that end, she makes Harry quite sympathetic. Jessica, protective of her son but keen to stand by her principles, clings to the hope that, owing to their different understanding of the incident, he and the girl in question are both "right". It does at times feel like a lecture more than a drama – but blessed with a sophisticated staging and a "gale force" central turn, it "hits home, thoughtfully and forcefully".

Director Justin Martin, who also directed "Prima Facie", "ensures that the tempo never falters", said Clive Davis in The Times. The fluid set design brings a "rare sense of intimacy to the Lyttelton's stage", and Pike is superb. But ultimately, Miller's tale is rather "slender", and "you can see where the story is heading long before the final scene".

Lyttelton, National Theatre, London SE1. Until 13 September