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Winner of the 2018 Griffin Award, 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.
Tessa is 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, Suzie Miller's (Sunset Strip, Caress/Ache) taut, rapid-fire and gripping one-woman show exposes the shortcomings of a patriarchal justice system where it’s her word against his.
Maybe we need a new system.
‘An urgent and compelling work.’
— Time Out Sydney
‘Powerful… the effect is devastating’
— The Sydney Morning Herald
Suzie Miller is a contemporary international playwright, screenwriter and librettist, drawn to complex human stories often exploring injustice. Miller’s plays have been produced in over 40 productions around the world and won multiple prestigious awards. Her drama Prima Facie won AWGIE Awards for Drama, the Major Award and the David Williamson Prize in 2020; and the Griffin Award in 2018. It has now been translated into more than 20 languages. Most recently Prima Facie enjoyed extraordinary acclaim marking Miller’s West End debut produced by Empire Street Productions and starring Jodie Comer. The production will transfer to Broadway in 2023. Both the Australian and the West End productions have won and been nominated for multiple prestigious awards. Two new commissioned plays of Miller’s premiered in 2022: ANNA K (Malthouse Theatre) and RBG: Of Many, One (Sydney Theatre Company). Other recent theatre credits include: Prima Facie (Australian production), Caress/Ache, Sunset Strip, Dust, The Mathematics Oflonging, Medea, Driving Into Wall, OneFiveZeroSeven and Snow White.
