Cynthia Erivo wants audiences to leave "Prima Facie" arguing - not about verdicts, but about the moment consent goes missing and the room around it goes silent.

The Tony-winning actress leads the big-screen adaptation of Suzie Miller's one-woman stage phenomenon, which became a West End and Broadway sensation before producers turned it into a feature film. Directed by Susanna White, "Prima Facie" arrives in theaters on November 13, 2026, distributed under the Hollywood banner and running 109 minutes.

Erivo, who won a Tony for her performance in the stage version and now reprises the role of Tessa Ensler on screen, said the film's central question is not whether audiences understand consent as a legal concept, but whether they recognize how casually its absence gets dismissed.

"I hope people walk out talking about how a lack of consent is received - by courts, by friends, by the person it happened to," Erivo said. "That conversation is the whole point."

From One-Woman Show to Courtroom Drama

Miller's play follows Tessa, a brilliant British defence barrister who has built a career defending men accused of sexual assault. Fierce, witty and self-made, she dominates London's courtrooms until a colleague from a powerful legal dynasty assaults her. The system she once trusted turns against her, forcing her to face the same tactics she used on the other side of the aisle. Once firmly in control, she is left exposed, disbelieved and fighting to reclaim her voice.

The story's structure - a woman who knows the rules of the game, then becomes the game's target - is what drew White to the material. The director, whose credits include "Bleak House" and "Generation Kill," said translating the intimacy of a solo stage performance into a full ensemble film required trusting silence as much as dialogue.

The screenplay adaptation expands the courtroom world The play only suggested: the legal dynasty that shields Tessa's attacker, the colleagues who close ranks, the barristers' chambers where reputations are traded like currency. Daniel Ings plays Julian, the colleague at the center of Tessa's assault. Elizabeth Dulau appears as Alice Sommers, while Noma Dumezweni, Toheeb Jimoh, Harry Treadaway, Sarah Junillon and Elliot Levey round out the cast.

A Story Built on Legal Reality, Not Melodrama

Miller, a former lawyer herself, wrote "Prima Facie" after years of observing how sexual assault cases are prosecuted. The play's title comes from the Latin legal term for evidence that is sufficient on its face - a standard Tessa understands intimately until she becomes the one whose account is weighed and found wanting.

That legal precision is what Erivo said makes the film different from a conventional courtroom drama.

"There's no villain twirling a mustache," she said. "There's a system that works exactly as designed, and that's the horror of it."

The stage version became a cultural flashpoint, credited with shifting conversations about consent and the burden of proof in several countries where it was performed. Producers have positioned the film as reaching a far larger audience than the play could.

A November Release in a Crowded Awards Season

"Prima Facie" lands in theaters on November 13, 2026, squarely in the corridor studios reserve for prestige dramas. The film's subject matter and Erivo's pedigree make it a likely awards-season contender, though no festival premiere or campaign details have been announced.

The project also marks a rare screen adaptation of a solo theatrical work headlined by the same performer who originated the role. Erivo won the Tony for Best Actress in a Play for "Prima Facie" in 2023, and her return to the part on film has been anticipated since the adaptation was first reported.

Whether the movie replicates the stage production's cultural impact remains to be seen. But Erivo said she is less interested in awards math than in the arguments the film might start.

"The play did something I've never experienced before," she said. "People stayed in their seats afterward. They didn't want to leave. Then they wanted to talk. If the film does even half of that, we've done our job."

"Prima Facie" opens in theaters November 13, 2026.

Source: Hollywood Reporter