Video: On the Red Carpet at Opening Night of PRIMA FACIE

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. Renowned actress Jodie Comer is making her Broadway debut in Suzy Miller's Olivier Award-winning play

Prima Facie, directed by Justin Martin. And I caught up with all of them here at the Golden Theatre just minutes after their opening night curtain rang down

Well now I can say it, welcome to Broadway. How does it feel

Amazing. I remember last week when we had our official snob Saturday night on Broadway and it was pretty euphoric

It feels incredible, you know, to think about where we started this journey in London and to think now that we've officially opened, it's happened. It's amazing. Yeah, I feel so grateful

Because of your success, you're introducing a whole new audience to live theatre for the first time. What that means to you

I hope so. I mean, I don't know if that's the truth. You are. Oh good, good. Well that's amazing. Because I think there's nothing like live theatre, you know, when you can feel, whether it be 800 people in a room all holding their breath simultaneously, or even giving each other permission to cry or laugh

It's incredible and I think, you know, each work has its purpose. You know, sometimes we like to go to watch something to completely switch off and laugh and enjoy. But it's like I've realised that actually certain moments in my life when I've done projects like this that really do kind of hold a mirror up to us as a society

That you come away feeling something very, very different. And I just feel so lucky that they sent me the script. Yeah

How did the play come about for you to write? Okay, so I used to be a human rights lawyer and a defence lawyer. And when I was doing a lot of defence work, I didn't do sexual assault defence work so much, but I took a lot of sexual assault statements from young women and some young men who'd been sexually assaulted and were applying for some psychological compensation so they could have some money for some therapy

And they were amazing. And they also were just devastated by what happened. They gave me their testimonies and each time, you know, I would hear a story that was so similar to before, but none of them ever made it to court. And I thought there's something wrong when these stories are not being heard or they're not being litigated

And now I know the stats are that one in ten take it to the police and then after that only 1.3% are convicted out of all of those. So that's a very low rate when you think of any crime. I mean, it doesn't seem that the legal system's working appropriately. And of course, you know, it has to catch up with the community and the community values

It is opening night. Welcome to Broadway. How does it feel? Amazing. Absolutely incredible. Broadway's always sort of like, I think, for people who make theatre in the UK. It's felt like this glittering kind of, you know, amazing destination. So to be here, particularly with this play, which means so much to all of us, is phenomenal. I'm very, very excited

I've been trying to make stuff in theatre for a few years. Nothing had ever gone. And I was really busy and I was like, I'm not sure if I have any time for this, but I'll meet them. And I read it and was like, it's just an extra arm to what I was about to go into that year doing, which was promoting my album and promoting this message of like, we've all had these experiences and it's because so much of it happens in the grey area and no one understands that

Like any men I speak to cannot believe it when you say the statistics. And it's because the media feeds us like, you know, knife wielding attackers and it doesn't show you the grey area or the, you know, just the times when consent is not given. And that's why the statistics are so high. And that's how we change it by having those conversations

Watching audiences, how this show is touching people and audiences, what that means to you

Look, it's totally profound. I sat through the show on Tuesday and a woman cried from the beginning of the second half all the way through. And I think not that tears are necessarily the measure of whether a show is working or not. But I think what the show is trying to do is to tap into a bigger conversation, which is always the work that I like to do, whether it be The Jungle or Inheritance or anything that I've done. It's trying to go, how do we get beyond the arts pages? And hearing an audience go that this is something that we want to engage in

I mean, because it is crazy that the actual facts, although in the play they say one in three, in America it's closer to one in two. And that is alarming within the context of the world. So I feel very humbled both to have been able to be a part of this play, but also the conversation that it's trying to have is to go, things have to change because the male system of law needs to change

And as a male who benefits from that in some senses, I also for my own benefit in my life, I want it to change

Talk about the importance of this play and what it means to being a part of it. I mean, it's so incredibly important. The issue that we speak about is universal. And you can see that very clearly when you see the response that we got in the UK and the kind of response we're getting from the audiences in the US. And it has to be really handled with care and integrity

And I feel like we've been so lucky that we've been led by James Beerman because he never wanted people to leave the theatre feeling kind of hopeless and like there was no hope and there was no way to change

And, you know, he partnered with the Schools Consent Project. He made sure that in the programmes people had contacts that they could reach out to if they felt that they needed support or if they were, you know, trying to search for a way in which they could help. And he's kind of led the charge throughout all of this. So it feels like people are really, the people who are part of this really care about what it is that they're speaking about

I think what's been amazing about it is that what James did was brought, Justin brought together a group of artists and then said, just said, do what you feel. And actually, I kind of kept waiting for someone to say, yeah, but not that and not that and not that. And it never happened. And I think we all have the same experience actually is, and that's incredibly rare, actually, that you get to have a response, feel things and then put what you feel on stage

Whether it be music, lighting design, set design, video, you know, I think we just all did our thing and that was what they wanted. And then it's been very successful. So it's really interesting that if you just follow your instincts, that actually you can end up on the right, in the right place

Finally, when you took your bow, Broadway debut tonight, the Golden Theatre, do you remember what you were thinking when you took your bow

I was trying to find my brother. I was trying, the lights come up and I was trying to find where my brother was. But it was amazing because we, you know, all the all the crew came, came on. And it was amazing for us all to be able to like acknowledge each other in that way, because people are always like, oh, my God, it's a one woman play. And it's like, yeah, but also no, because it actually takes an army of people to create this production

And so it was amazing to be able to have everyone there at the same time and be appreciated. Yeah