A Griffin Theatre Company Production
Prima Facie
19 Apr 23
The Q
16+
by Suzie Miller
This is not life. This is law.
Overview
Date
19 April 2023, 7.30pm
Venue
The Q
Running time
100mins, no interval
Post-show Q&A
Audience advice
Contains coarse language, descriptions of sex scenes and sexual assault
Recommended for ages 16+
Tickets
$30 – $60
Concession tickets must show ID
Description
Classification
After a sold-out run on the West End, Griffin Theatre Company’s original production of Suzie Miller’s Griffin Award-winning tour de force makes its much-anticipated return.
Prima Facie is an indictment of the Australian legal system’s failure to provide reliable pathways to justice for women in rape, sexual assault or harassment cases. It’s a work of fiction, but one that could have been ripped from the headlines of any paper, any day of the week, so common you could cry. Sheridan Harbridge stars as Tessa—a criminal lawyer at the top of her game who knows the law permits no room for emotion.
To win, you just need to believe in the rules. And Tessa loves to win, even when defending clients accused of sexual assault. Her court-ordained duty trumps her feminism. But when she finds herself on the other side of the bar, Tessa is forced into the shadows of doubt she’s so ruthlessly cast over other women.
Turning Sydney’s courts of law into a different kind of stage, this taut, rapid-fire and gripping one-woman show by Suzie Miller (Anna K, Sunset Strip) exposes the shortcomings of a patriarchal justice system where it’s her word against his. Maybe we need a new system.
This is an urgent and compelling work: one that should be as widely seen for its craft, just as much as its subject matter should be better understood by our politicians, lawmakers and general public. Run, don’t walk.
★★★★★ Debbie Zhou – Time Out
Sheridan Harbridge is superb as Tessa. Combative, controlled and clear-sighted in the first half, her decimation in the second is all the more gut-wrenching in this intense production directed by Lee Lewis.
★★★★ Joyce Morgan – Sydney Morning Herald
The play is a living document, a map for change. It’s theatre that holds our hands and says: there could be justice for those one in three. We can change the law.
★★★★ Cassie Tongue – Audrey Journal
Director Lee Lewis
With Sheridan Harbridge
Please join us after the performance for a Q&A with Sheridan Harbridge.
Content Warnings
Contains coarse language, descriptions of sex scenes and sexual assault. Recommended for ages 16+.
Rape Crisis
1800 424 017 (24/7)
Sexual Assault Counselling Australia
1800 211 028 (8am – 11pm, Mon – Fri)
sexualassaultcounselling.org.au