Prima Facie, the award-winning one-woman play written by Australian playwright Suzie Miller is coming to the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin later this month. One of the hottest tickets in theatre, the show completely sold out in a few minutes but the story can be read in a novel of the same name also written by Miller.
Prima Facie follows the story of Tessa Ensler, a highly successful criminal defence lawyer who specialises in sexual assault cases. When Ensler - played by Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer - is sexually assaulted by a colleague, she suddenly finds herself on the other side of the justice system and learns that the law was not written with victims in mind and that she is the one on trial.
The inspiration for the play came from Miller’s own experience working as a criminal lawyer in Australia. During this time she witnessed the courts systematically mistreat women who report crimes of rape and sexual assault. Miller explains how victims are put on the stand and “cross-examined as if they must be lying”, which in turn retraumatises them all over again.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Irish Times Women’s Podcast, Miller says, “If you were mugged or your car was broken into, the same thing doesn’t apply. You’re not interrogated in the same way as women who have been through this really traumatic experience”.
READ MORE
The former lawyer especially notes the way a defence team can seek to undermine a woman’s recollection of events. “Women get cross examined about peripheral details, but really when you’re fighting for your life, you remember the perpetrator, you remember what’s happening. It’s been proven over and over again by behavioural psychologists that you don’t remember what color the lamp was in the room… you don’t remember exactly what the time was because you’re actually in the moment just surviving,” she says.
“You’re cross-examining someone who survived something horrific and asking them questions that are completely irrelevant to the process or as to what happened”.
The play which first came to the stage in 2019 has won numerous awards including a Tony Award for leading actress Comer, but what Miller is most proud of is perhaps the impact the story has on the legal system. It is now mandatory viewing for newly appointed High Court judges in Northern Ireland and has changed the way judges direct the jury in sexual assault cases in the UK.
In this wide-ranging conversation Miller reflects on the play’s global success, the real-world impact it has had, and why the story has resonated with so many.
She also talks about her background growing up as a working-class girl in Australia, where her love of writing came from and about working with Lena Dunham on upcoming projects.
You can listen back to this episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
