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Artwork for Prima Facie
Artwork for Prima Facie
Artwork for Prima Facie
Artwork for Prima Facie
Prima Facie

8 Feb — 25 Mar 2023

Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio

The original Australian production – which went on to inspire a sold-out West End season and upcoming Broadway season – roars onto the Melbourne stage. From the writer of the widely acclaimed RBG: Of Many, One, Suzie Miller, and starring Sheridan Harbridge, Prima Facie is a searing indictment of a legal system that consistently fails women.

Approx. 1 hour and 30 minutes with no interval

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This is rated 5 out of 5 stars

‘Extraordinary and visceral.’

The Age
This is rated 5 out of 5 stars

‘An urgent and compelling work.’

Time Out Sydney
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘Powerful ... the effect is devastating.’

The Sydney Morning Herald

ABOUT THE SHOW

The original Australian production – which went on to inspire a sold-out West End season and upcoming Broadway season – roars onto the Melbourne stage.

From the writer of the widely acclaimed RBG: Of Many, One, Suzie Miller’s play is a searing indictment of a legal system that constantly fails women. Reprising her award-winning performance, Sheridan Harbridge plays Tessa Ensler with passion and mesmerising conviction.

Tessa Ensler is a woman at the top of her game: a defence lawyer who commands the respect of her colleagues and clients, with a string of unbroken wins under her belt. She knows the law inside out; she trusts the law. But when she finds herself on the other side of the bench, facing the very system she once put her faith in, she quickly realises that something has to change.

Prima Facie premiered at Griffin Theatre in 2019, wowing audiences and winning widespread critical acclaim, as well as a Sydney Theatre Award for Harbridge and multiple awards for Miller – including the 2020 David Williamson Award for Outstanding Theatre Writing. With the original Griffin dream team of director Lee Lewis (Gloria) and Sheridan Harbridge (The Beast), this one-woman powerhouse performance demands to be seen.

 

This production contains mature themes, sexual references and descriptions of sexual violence. For detailed information about the production’s content click here. 
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, Beyond Blue 1300 224 636 or Rainbow Door 1800 729 367.

A Griffin Theatre Company Production  

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Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

  • Hearing Assistance

  • Audio Described

  • Tactile Tour

  • Open Captioning

  • Auslan Interpreted

Performance Type Performance Date(s)
Audio Described
by Vision Australia 		Saturday 25 February at 2pm
Tuesday 28 February at 6.30pm
Tactile Tour
by Vision Australia 		Saturday 25 February at 2pm (Tactile tour commences at 1pm)
Open Captioning
via screen 		Saturday 4 March at 2pm
Auslan Interpreted
by Auslan Stage Left 		Tuesday 7 March at 6.30pm
Artwork for Sheridan Harbridge

Sheridan Harbridge

Tessa

Sheridan Harbridge is an award winning actor, writer and director, graduating from NIDA in 2006. For Melbourne Theatre Company she appeared in The Beast, The Speechmaker and North by Northwest. Her theatre acting credits include Stop Girl, Calamity Jane, The Sugar House, Girl Asleep, The Dog/The Cat (Belvoir Theatre); Prima Facie, Kill Climate Deniers, Jump for Jordan (Griffin Theatre Company); Queen Fatima (Sydney Festival); Gaybies (Darlinghurst). She wrote the musical Songs for the Fallen, which won Best Musical, and Outstanding actress at the New York Music Theatre Festival, and a Green Room Award. It appeared at Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland and Adelaide Cabaret Festival, and Arts Centre Melbourne. She recently appeared in The Twelve (Foxtel) and The Messenger (ABC). She won Best Actress at the Sydney Theatre Awards for her performance in the premiere season of Prima Facie and nominated for her role in Stop Girl at Belvoir Theatre.

Current as of February 2023.

Artwork for Suzie Miller

Suzie Miller

Writer

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.

Current as of Febraury 2023.

 

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Lee Lewis

Director

Lee Lewis is the Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre and one of Australia’s leading directors. For Melbourne Theatre Company Lee has directed Gloria, Hay Fever and David Williamson’s Rupert, which toured to Washington DC as part of the World Stages International Arts Festival and to Sydney’s Theatre Royal in 2014. For Queensland Theatre she has directed Family Values, First Casualty, Bernhardt/Hamlet, Return to the Dirt, Prima Facie, Our Town, Mouthpiece, Rice. Other directing credits include Family Values, First Love is the Revolution, Prima Facie, Is There Something Wrong With That Lady?, The Almighty Sometimes, Kill Climate Deniers, Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography, The Homosexuals or ‘Faggots’, Rice, Masquerade, Gloria, The Bleeding Tree, Emerald City, A Rabbit for Kim Jong-il, The Serpent’s Table, Replay, Silent Disco, Smurf In Wanderland, The Bull, The Moon and the Coronet of Stars, The Call, A Hoax, The Nightwatchman (Griffin Theatre Company); The Literati, The Misanthrope (Griffin/Bell Shakespeare); Mary Stuart, Honour, Love-Lies-Bleeding, ZEBRA! (Sydney Theatre Company); That Face, This Heaven, Half and Half, A Number, 7 Blowjobs, Ladybird (Belvoir); The School for Wives, Twelfth Night (Bell Shakespeare).

Current as of February 2023.

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Renée Mulder

Set & Costume Designer

Renée Mulder is an award-winning set and costume designer. Her theatre design credits include Arbus and West, Home, I’m Darling (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Bleeding Tree, The Boys, Dogged, Prima Facie, Superheroes (Griffin Theatre Company); The Pigeons (Griffin Independent); A Hoax (Griffin Theatre Company/La Boite); Rice (Griffin Theatre Company/Queensland Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Bell Shakespeare); As You Like It, Ruben Guthrie, I Love You, Bro (La Boite); An Octoroon, Boy Swallows Universe, Fat Pig, Mouthpiece, Nearer the Gods, Return to the Dirt, Sacre Bleu! (Queensland Theatre); Actor on a Box: The Luck Child, Banging Denmark, Battle of Waterloo, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Black is the New White, Dance Better at Parties, Grand Horizons, Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark, In a Heart Beat, The Long Way Home, Mariage Blanc, Mrs Warren’s Profession, Orlando, Perplex, The Splinter, The Torrents (Sydney Theatre Company). Renée was Design Director at Queensland Theatre 2010-2021. She is a graduate of NIDA and Queensland College of Art.

Current as of Febraury 2023.

Artwork for Trent Suidgeest

Trent Suidgeest

Lighting Designer

Trent Suidgeest’s lighting design credits include The Feather in the Web, First Love is the Revolution, The Homosexuals or ‘Faggots’, Kill Climate Deniers, Prima Facie, Wicked Sisters (Griffin Theatre Company); The Sapphires (which toured to Barbican, London and Daegu Opera House, South Korea); Carmen, The Rabbits (Opera Australia); The Lovers (Bell Shakespeare); Fourteen (Shake’n’Stir); Oklahoma!, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Black Swan State Theatre Company); Let The Right One In (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Black Cockatoo, Folk (Ensemble Theatre); Muriel’s Wedding The Musical (Global Creatures / Sydney Theatre Company), Calamity Jane (Australian Tour and Belvoir), Darlinghurst Nights, Gypsy, Only Heaven Knows, The Rise and Disguise of Elizabeth R, The View UpStairs, Young Frankenstein (Hayes Theatre Company). In 2015, with a Mike Walsh Fellowship, Trent assisted Jan Versweyveld and Ivo van Hove at Toneelgroep Amsterdam on their Shakespearian epic Kings of War at Wiener Festwochen.

Current as of February 2023.

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Paul Charlier

Composer & Sound Designer

Paul Charlier started out with industrial bands SoliPsiK and SPK and composing for Anthill Theatre, Melbourne. He has since worked on nearly 200 productions, including Prima Facie (Griffin Theatre Company); Jurrungu Ngan-ga (Straight Talk) (Marrugeku); A Room of One’s Own, Aftershocks, Buried Child, Dance of Death, Diary of a Madman (for which he received a Sydney Theatre Award), Faith Healer, Hamlet, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Suddenly Last Summer (Belvoir); Already Elsewhere (Force Majeure); Honour Bound (for which he received a Sydney Theatre Award) (Malthouse/Sydney Opera House); RBG: Of Many, One, A Streetcar Named Desire (for which he received a Sydney Theatre Award and a Helpmann Award), Copenhagen, Love-Lies-Bleeding, Tot Mom, Victory (Sydney Theatre Company). Paul wrote and produced the ABC Radio features A Plan for Eurydice and The Touring Machine (in partnership with MoCA, Los Angeles). In 2017, he co-directed the polymedia surveillance work WIRE LESS.

Current as of February 2023.

Artwork for Luisa Hastings Edge

Luisa Hastings Edge

Standby Cover

Learn more about Prima Facie

Get Directions

Fairfax Studio

100 St Kilda Road

Melbourne , Victoria 3004