Prima Facie, written by Suzie Miller, is an award-winning Australian play following successful criminal defense barrister Tessa Ensler (Acushla-Tara Kupe), as an office romance takes a dark turn, threatening to upend her life and shaking her faith in the system she has spent so many years in service to.
Things often appear simple, on the face of it. On the face of it, a victim’s previous consent serves to undermine their story of sexual assault. On the face of it, their being drunk makes their memory less credible. But Prima Facie is a blazing, searing piece that challenges these assumptions made so easily by the legal system, exposing its flaws and biases.
Kupe enters the stage and dons a barrister’s robes and wig. Tessa Ensler begins to wax lyrical about the courtroom, the cross-examination. We are charmed by her confidence, her passion, her enjoyment of the game, and we are seduced by the brash and sexy world of law – prestigious offices, dalliances in chambers, chasing that sweet victory.
Ensler has defended several men in sexual assault cases and won. She has absolute conviction in her role in the legal system – she is a defender of freedom, the right to a fair trial, innocent until proven guilty. It is not her job to prove an assault did not happen, but rather that a lack of consent was not clearly communicated. Her certainty lulls us into a false sense of security, even as we have a horrible feeling about what is to come.
When it happens, it is somewhat harrowing. Fortunately, as this is a solo piece, we don’t have to witness it, but Ensler describes for us the confusion, the fear, the pain, the dissociation.
The play does not linger on the act itself. It is the aftermath that consumes the rest of the story.
Gone is sharp-shot legalese and the world of cut-and-dry. We are plunged into the realm of the personal, emotional, and messy, just as Ensler’s self-assuredness changes to doubt even as she tries to resist becoming the victim in her own narrative. The (noticeably masculine) mannequin is no longer just a prop for her wig and gown, it is now an ominous specter watching events unfold. The large table transforms from Ensler’s locus of power to a place of vulnerability.
Director Paul Gittins makes excellent use of John Parker’s minimal but striking set. Projection announces the title of each section, helping us make sense of the fast-paced and often non-linear story.
A live feed of Ensler’s police interview is blasted onto the massive screen, emphasizing her exposure. Eve de Castro-Robinson’s sound design punctuates moments of tension, particularly the echoey strike of the gavel, though there were a few points where the transition from sound to silence was a little jarring.
At the heart of this New Zealand premiere of Prima Facie is Kupe’s outstanding performance. Though smart and well-written, it is a very wordy and often fractured script that Kupe tackles with impressive ease. She holds us in her grip for the entire 90 minutes, taking us on a powerful and intense journey. She nails every facet of Ensler’s character and gives us a truly raw, bold and nuanced performance.
There is a class commentary running in the background of the piece – Ensler comes from a working-class background while her assaulter has a classic private school upbringing. This reflects how it is so often men of privilege who are unjustly let off the hook or given lighter sentences, as in the case of Brock Turner.
Soon, Ensler is the one in the witness box, the one being cross-examined. Doubts about what happened are placed upon her, so much so that she begins to question it herself.
The very nature of how trauma affects the brain – the blurring of details – is used against her.
Many of us will know all too well how a nightmarish experience can be made worse by that sickening creep of doubt, imposed by society’s long-standing unwillingness to believe sexual assault victims. Although as the audience we are firmly on Ensler’s side, we are also limited to her perspective, her perception of events.
Enough greyness is evoked by this that we cannot help but consider how messy such cases can be, when it’s one person’s word against another. Consent is not always clear-cut, and physical force is not the only coercive tool, especially when an intimate partner is the perpetrator of sexual violation (as is often the case).
In Ensler’s final, commanding indictment, she laments that the law wants everything to be clear, concise, and factual, but that is not what real life looks like.
Prima Facie is a wildly thought-provoking piece that exposes how the ideals of the law might fall short in its application. It questions the narrative of the law as unchanging and unbiased and asks us to consider how it might be improved. What does it really mean to be innocent until proven guilty? And are there times when such values might hinder justice instead of promoting it?