Cynthia Erivo Takes the Lead in Screen Version of Prima Facie, Variety Reviews

Variety has published a review of Prima Facie, the film that puts Cynthia Erivo in the lead role. The review went up on 13 November 2026.

The film is directed by Susanna White. It is an adaptation of Suzie Miller's play, which has run in the West End and on Broadway. The play began as a one-woman show, with a single performer carrying the whole evening on stage.

Erivo inherits the part from Jodie Comer, who played it on stage. Comer's performance won a Tony Award and an Olivier Award, the two top prizes for theatre in the United States and Britain. Erivo is now the actor taking that role onto a cinema screen, where the camera can go places a stage cannot.

The cast also includes Daniel Ings, who plays Julian, a colleague of the lead character, Tessa Ensler. Ings's role gives the story a second person to work with, which is a change from the stage original, where the audience spent almost all its time with one performer.

For anyone who saw the stage production, the film offers a new way into the same story. For everyone else, it is a chance to meet a play that has already been seen by audiences in London and New York, now in a different form.

This article covers the facts of the release: who made it, who is in it, and where it comes from.