EXCLUSIVE: Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike is captured in our exclusive first look at the actress wearing her Crown Court judge robes, red tippet and wig for her role in Suzie Miller’s new play Inter Alia, which is described as a ”searing” exploration of masculinity and motherhood.
Miller, who wrote Prima Facie, the one-woman drama that propelled Jodie Comer to Tony- and Olivier-winning glory, is reunited with director Justin Martin following their collaboration on Prima Facie. She told Deadline that rehearsals “are coming along brilliantly,” and that cast and creatives are “excited” to put it in front of an audience “and igniting a conversation.”
The company will occupy the National Theatre’s Lyttelton stage for a two-month season that runs July 10-September 13. The production will be filmed and released by NT Live to cinemas beginning September 4.
Rosamund Pike rehearsing for ‘Inter Alia’
Manuel Harlan
“With this play I really want to explore the grey areas between our professional and private lives – hence the name Inter Alia or ‘among other things,’ ” Miller explained in an email exchange.
“I want to change the world with my work, and with this team,” she exclaimed, “anything feels possible!”
Pike will play Jessica Parks, an eminent Crown Court criminal judge, a maverick at the top of her career and married with a son. Miller has given the judge an intriguing sidebar: she’s a “karaoke fiend.”
Rosamund Pike flanked by Jasper Talbot (left) and Jamie Glover (right) in rehearsals for ‘Inter Alia’
Manuel Harlan
Pike studied the art of dancing moves with a karaoke mic. She also spent time at London’s Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey. When I last bumped into Pike, she mentioned briefly that she’d attended a murder trial there and had been allowed to observe senior female judiciary in their chambers.
Recently, Pike told Harper’s Bazaar that Inter Alia is a story about “navigating the raising of boys and whether we are letting them down. That’s a big debate right now,” she said, alluding to the Netflix drama Adolescence.
The stage has long been a home for Pike. In between the likes of Die Another Day, Pride and Prejudice, An Education, Jack Reacher, A United Kingdom and Saltburn, the actress took time to tread the boards in Hedda Gabler, Madame de Sade, Gaslight, Summer & Smoke, Hitchcock Blonde and more.
For all concerned, Inter Alia’s a huge deal. It will be the last major new play commissioned by recently knighted Sir Rufus Norris, who officially stepped down in the spring as the NT’s artistic director and co-chief executive after a decade in the post.
And it’s Pike’s National debut in what has been described to me as “a colossal role.” It has a prime spot in the National’s season, and ticket sales are hot.
Rosamund Pike in rehearsals for ‘Inter Alia’ at the National Theatre
Manuel Harlan
The Pike-starring The Wheel of Time fantasy series was not renewed for a fourth season on Prime Video, Deadline recently revealed. That could provide time for Pike should Inter Alia break through and have a transferable West End and Broadway post-National life.
The Inter Alia cast includes Louisa Clein, Luke Garner-Greene, Jamie Glover, Thomas Michaelson and Jasper Talbot.
Rosamund Pike rehearsing for ‘Inter Alia’
Manuel Harlan
The creative team includes set and costume designer Miriam Buether, lighting designer Natasha Chivers, movement and intimacy director Lucy Hind, sound designers Ben and Max Ringham, video designer Willie Williams for Treatment Studio, composers Erin LeCount and James Jacob, musical director Nick Pinchbeck, casting directors Alastair Coomer and Naomi Downham, and voice coach William Conacher.
