Consent

“I raped this woman… no witness, she’s a bit of a drinker, so am I, her word against mine.”

As the curtain rises on this hard-hitting tragicomedy, two champagne-clinking sex-crime lawyers engage in dark repartee, mimicking their clients and foreshadowing their own involvement in a perverted web of personal justice.

In a play that pivots on the power of language, drama builds in both the courtroom and the bedroom. Under the shadow of a rape case, Kitty grapples with her barrister husband Edward’s chilling lack of empathy in both his work and their relationship. He may serve the law, but she has her own beliefs about marital justice unserved. Justice, they discover, isn’t as clear cut when the accusations are angled closer to home.

Meanwhile, the linguistic duel between Edward and prosecutor Tim escalates outside the courtroom. Character is placed on trial as old misdeeds are dug up for judgement. Legal grey areas become moral minefields as language becomes a weapon to entrap and condemn.

A sophisticated, powerful and relevant drama, Consent has transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre after a sold-out season at the National.