Why I Was Sobbing In Prima Facie, The Extraordinary One-Women Play In Its Home Run Return

I didn't expect to be sobbing in the theatre on a Thursday night, but that's exactly what Prima Facie did to me. After an award-winning run in London and New York, the tour-de-force one-woman play by Suzie Miller is back where it all started, in Sydney.

Sheridan Harbridge returns as Tessa, top barrister who specialises in defending men accused of sexual assault, who is forced to reckon with the brutal inadequacies of the legal system after she is sexually assaulted herself.

Since its premiere in 2019 at the intimate Griffith Theatre, the play has exploded onto the world stage, winning two Laurence Olivier Awards and a Tony Award (including Best Actress nods for Jodie Comer, who starred in both the West End and Broadway productions). It's been translated into more than 130 languages, and a film starring Cynthia Erivo is on the way.

And yet, in the hands of Harbridge and with director Lee Lewis returning, the play — this time at the much larger Roslyn Packer Theatre — feels as fresh and as powerful and as timely as if it were debuting. Harbridge is captivating, raw, funny and devastating, transporting audiences from a simple set design — a generic corporate chair — to her office, to the court, to the pub after work, to the scene of the crime, to the police station, to the hospital.

“Australia does not often pause to celebrate its great cultural exports while they are still shaping the world," co-producer Andrew Henry said. "Prima Facie is one of the most significant theatrical works ever to come out of this country. This season is about honouring that achievement, not chasing it, not remaking it, but acknowledging where it began, and the artists who carried it into the world.”

I'm sure I was not the only one attempting to muffle my sobs in the theatre. The plot is, after all, hinged on a sexual assault. But it was Harbridge's portrayal of the little moments of humiliation and dehumanisation afterwards that struck me; the argument with the cabbie when she's trying to get to the police station, the texts from her assailant asking if she's okay, the decision about whether to prosecute lying outside of her control entirely, as explained by a police officer for whom this is just another shift, just another woman.

Maybe I was crying because it feels like the world has moved on from the #MeToo era without any of the change so desperately needed. Harvey Weinstein is landing magazine profiles from prison. Kevin Spacey returned to the Cannes red carpet. High profile legal cases in Australia ended without justice for (alleged) victims, and in some cases, before the alleged victims were even able to share their stories before the court. Less than 10 per cent of reported sexual assault cases end in a guilty outcome; no wonder almost 90 per cent of people will not make a police report at all.

The numbers haven't shifted, the consequences aren't there.

So maybe I was crying because Prima Facie was a reminder that conversations about sexual assault are still being had at all, and that there's still an audience and appetite for change.

Or maybe it's just an extraordinary play, and one that everybody should be going to see.

Prima Facie is at the Roslyn Packer Theatre until June 21, 2026. Buy tickets here.

Lead photo: Supplied.