Prima Facie review: Black Swan State Theatre Company’s powerful Suzie Miller play starring Sophia Forrest

Suzie Miller’s play Prima Facie takes grippingly confronting theatre to a new level. Compelled by years of experience working with victims of sexual assault, the former lawyer-turned-playwright’s solo tour de force was penned on the eve of the #MeToo movement, under the shadow of where one in three women will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Many sexual assault victims will know their attacker, rather than the clichéd encounter down a dark alleyway. First produced by Sydney’s Griffin Theatre at the SBW Stables Theatre in 2019, Prima Facie went on to have a worldwide reach thanks to Olivier and Tony Award-winning seasons on the West End and Broadway in 2022 and 2023 respectively, starring Jodie Comer. This new production of Prima Facie, directed by Black Swan State Theatre Company artistic director Kate Champion, follows an “in conversation” programming by Champion with Miller’s groundbreaking one-woman play RBG: Of Many, One performed in Perth by Heather Mitchell to rave reviews in June. Both plays mark a pivotal moment in the Australian playwright’s career, with Prima Facie shining a shocking spotlight on the flaws of a legal system that condemns rape victim-survivors with the burden of proof in “playing the game” of law. WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate and rising star Sophia Forrest tackles the role of criminal defence barrister Tessa Ensler with full force, courage, and absolute conviction, never faltering on opening night. Ensler is addicted to using every strategy in her legal toolkit to see her clients walk free, until one night the patriarchy-powered legal process that attacks victims through blaming and shaming, setting them up to fail in their pursuit of justice, turns on her. She is sexually assaulted by someone she knows, where previous sexual encounters, intoxication and the question of consent are thrown at her as she sits on the other side of the witness stand, armourless, and the broken legal system that she has so blindly believed in lets her down. Last seen on the Black Swan stage making their professional debut as Eli in 2017’s Let the Right One In, Perth-raised Forrest is utterly impressive, thriving in the self-confessed hardest thing they have ever attempted. Forrest might be delivering a solo performance, but are by no means alone on stage, supported by a superb creative team, from Champion’s skilful and instinctive direction — guiding her actor through an incredibly intense subject matter while staying true to Miller’s intention for the play — to Bruce McKiven’s set design of moving parts. A standard revolve in the middle of the stage helps Forrest to move around and set a scene, filling the expansive space with ease, while columns in the courtroom evoke the power play associated with a chessboard, lit beautifully by lighting designer Peter Young. Composer and sound designer Melanie Robinson rose to the challenge of underscoring a play of pace and intensity, the emotion-fuelled compositions transitioning between piano, cello and other stringed instruments, accompanying the story through space and time. Prima Facie is an intensely powerful evening in the theatre you cannot, and should not, look away from. It is creativity at its finest and a vital conversation starter, if only the conversation had begun sooner, or it was not needed at all. 5 stars Prima Facie is at Heath Ledger Theatre until July 21. 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732